Effects of 2-deoxy-D-glucose on multi-unit activity of the hypothalamus in rats.

Multi-unit activity was recorded from the diencephalon of unanesthetized, immobilized female rats. Less than 50% of the recording sites in the hypothalamus showed changes in the level of multi-unit activity to changes in the level of glucose utilization induced by injection of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG). It was also not possible to specificy an area within the hypothalamus in which there was a concentration of recording sites which consistently responded to 2-DG. Relatively large amplitude, long duration changes in multi-unit activity levels were also observed in the optic tract, suggesting that 2-DG induced a widespread cellular metabolic response to glucoprivation which may not have been related to the regulation of feeding.