Regulation of Food Intake, Body Weight, and Metabolism
The actions of leptin and ghrelin appear to involve neurons in the arcuate nucleus, a part of the hypothalamus that is just above the pituitary stalk. These hormones can enter…
Fever: Hypothalamic Responses During Inflammation Modulate Immune Response
HYPOTHALAMIC CONTROL OF LYMPHOID TISSUE IN IMMUNE RESPONSE A critical part of fighting off any infection is the activation of an appropriate immune response. During a sickness response, prostaglandin E2…
Fever: Cytokines and Prostaglandins Cause the Sickness Response
There are several processes by which invading infectious organisms can set off the sickness response. One is that they can act locally on white blood cells that then produce circulating…
Temperature Regulation
The other major way to increase body temperature is by heat conservation. Particularly in larger mammals, such as adult humans, the body makes sufficient heat from its internal metabolism so…
Overview of Hypothalamic Function and Dysfunction
Because the hypothalamus is very small, injuries often involve multiple systems. Hence, a patient with a pituitary tumor or craniopharyngioma impinging on the hypothalamus may have disorders extending into many…
Regulation of Water Balance
Fluid and electrolyte balance is maintained by autonomic, endocrine, and behavioral means. The renal blood flow is under autonomic control, as is the juxtaglomerular apparatus, which releases renin, an enzyme…
Limbic and Cortical Inputs to the Hypothalamus
Each of the limbic areas also sends descending inputs to the hypothalamus. The inputs from the cingulate gyrus mainly originate in the infralimbic and prelimbic regions (around and just beneath…
Taste and Other Visceral Sensory Inputs to the Hypothalamus
Ascending axons from the nucleus of the solitary tract travel through the brainstem, and a large proportion of them synapse in the parabrachial nucleus. From there, axons continue on to…
Somatosensory Inputs to the Hypothalamus
Somatosensory inputs are also important in sexual behavior. Neurons in the preoptic area promote erection in males, and nerve cells in the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus can potently drive…
Visual Inputs to the Hypothalamus
The retinohypothalamic tract originates from about 1,000 scattered retinal ganglion cells in each retina. In 2001, it was discovered that these retinal ganglion cells have the peculiar property of making…
