Impaired drinking responses of rats with lesions of nucleus medianus: circadian dependence.

The drinking behavior of rats with electrolytic lesions of ventral nucleus medianus (vNM) was examined during acute hyperosmolality and hypovolemia. The brain-damaged animals were impaired in their drinking responses to systemic treatment with hypertonic saline or polyethylene glycol solution when they were tested during the day. However, apparently normal drinking responses to both dipsogenic challenges were observed when the same animals were pretreated with the stimulant drug, caffeine, or when they were tested at night. These results suggest that lesions of vNM may produce complex alterations in the control of drinking behavior rather than the destruction of sensory receptors. The lesions appear to disrupt both circadian influences on drinking and activational components of drinking that normally serve to facilitate the behavioral response. The present results, together with similar findings for rats given lesions of the subfornical organ, support recent proposals that periventricular tissue bordering the rostral wall of the third cerebral ventricle plays an important role in the central control of drinking.