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    Psychsim 5 Hunger and The Fat Rat

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    Chris Woodside
    This simulated experiment studied weight regulation in rats by stimulating or destroying parts of the hypothalamus. Stimulating the lateral hypothalamus (LH) caused rats to gain weight from overeating, while destroying the LH led to weight loss from undereating. Stimulating the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) initially caused reduced food intake but weight remained stable, while destroying the VMH led to overeating and weight gain. The experiment showed that the LH regulates eating to gain weight while the VMH regulates eating to maintain weight. However, the results did not definitively prove the roles of these regions since weight stabilized and other brain areas could also influence eating.

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    Psychsim 5 Hunger and The Fat Rat

    Uploaded by

    Chris Woodside
    31K views2 pages
    This simulated experiment studied weight regulation in rats by stimulating or destroying parts of the hypothalamus. Stimulating the lateral hypothalamus (LH) caused rats to gain weight from overeating, while destroying the LH led to weight loss from undereating. Stimulating the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) initially caused reduced food intake but weight remained stable, while destroying the VMH led to overeating and weight gain. The experiment showed that the LH regulates eating to gain weight while the VMH regulates eating to maintain weight. However, the results did not definitively prove the roles of these regions since weight stabilized and other brain areas could also influence eating.

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    This simulated experiment studied weight regulation in rats by stimulating or destroying parts of the hypothalamus. Stimulating the lateral hypothalamus (LH) caused rats to gain weight from overeating, while destroying the LH led to weight loss from undereating. Stimulating the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) initially caused reduced food intake but weight remained stable, while destroying the VMH led to overeating and weight gain. The experiment showed that the LH regulates eating to gain weight while the VMH regulates eating to maintain weight. However, the results did not definitively prove the roles of these regions since weight stabilized and other brain areas could also influence eating.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    31K views2 pages

    Psychsim 5 Hunger and The Fat Rat

    Uploaded by

    Chris Woodside
    This simulated experiment studied weight regulation in rats by stimulating or destroying parts of the hypothalamus. Stimulating the lateral hypothalamus (LH) caused rats to gain weight from overeating, while destroying the LH led to weight loss from undereating. Stimulating the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) initially caused reduced food intake but weight remained stable, while destroying the VMH led to overeating and weight gain. The experiment showed that the LH regulates eating to gain weight while the VMH regulates eating to maintain weight. However, the results did not definitively prove the roles of these regions since weight stabilized and other brain areas could also influence eating.

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    PsychSim 5: HUNGER AND THE FAT RAT Name: Christopher Woodside Date: This activity provides a simulated experiment

    on weight regulation in rats. The Hypothalamus What are the two techniques used to study hypothalamic dysfunction? How do they differ?
    he two techniques are either stimulating the hypothalamus, or destroying it in order to see how the animal reacts. The destruction involves creating a brain lesion, the lesion suppresses a type of behavior; Stimulation involves activating the type of behavior controlled by the target region.

    Section:

    AP Psych

    Experimental Simulation What conclusions were you able to draw about the effects of the following procedures on the experimental rats: Stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus (LH)?
    The rat gains close to an extra 200 grams in weight the food consumption carries on seemingly normally, but grows increasingly larger over time.

    Destruction of the lateral hypothalamus (LH)?

    The rat loses most of its initial weight and eats virtually nothing for the last forty days of the test.

    Stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH)?

    The rat for consumption plummets during the first fifty days, but the weight of the rat only lowers slightly. Over time the rat begins to eat more, and begins to became more normal in amount consumed, the rat's weight also goes up, but only by very little.

    Destruction of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH)?

    While first going down quite quickly, the amount consumed quickly increases and steadies at a marginally higher intake than usual. The weight also hikes up over the course of 30 days and then stays at around the 400 gram range.

    What did you learn from this experiment about these two regions of the hypothalamus?

    We have learned that destruction to the lateral hypothalamus leads to under eating and to the ventromedial hypothalamus leads to overeating. Stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus creates over eating and the ventromedial hypothalamus creates under eating.

    Some Cautions What are the two problems with a simple conclusion to this research question?
    One problem is that the rat with VMH destruction did not keep on gaining weight indefinitely. Rats with LH destruction lowers but becomes stable.Together this caution displays that the damage possibly just readjusts the body set-point for the system that maintains body weight. The second problem was that similar disturbances in eating behavior can be produced by damage or stimulation to other regions of the rat's brain. It suggests that the VMH and LH may merely be links in a complicated chain of neural networks.

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