Brain mechanisms and drinking: the role of lamina terminalis-associated systems in extracellular thirst.

Concomitants associated with alterations in body fluid balance serve as stimuli to appraise the brain of the momentary status of body salt and water. Extracellular fluid osmolality and the peptide ANG II have been identified as the humoral components that act as stimuli to trigger central receptors related to cellular and extracellular thirst, respectively. In the case of extracellular thirst, information about pressure/volume status is also obtained from systemic vascular receptors. It is proposed that peripherally-derived neural information is integrated with ANG II-related input within structures located in periventricular tissue of the AV3V.