In a study with 36 female albino Sprague-Dawley rats, parasagittal knife cuts along the lateral border of the hypothalamus which transected most of the fibers that enter or leave the hypothalamus laterally reproduced the full spectrum of effects on food intake seen after lateral hypothalamic lesions. Ss were aphagic and adipsic for weeks or months and remained unresponsive to physiological signals that normally regulate feeding and drinking, even after voluntary ingestive behavior returned. Ss did not respond to insulin or 2-deoxy-D-glucose treatments (which decrease blood sugar or glucose utilization) and showed only a small increase in intake when exposed to low environmental temperatures. Food consumption appeared to be governed primarily by the palatability of the diet. Ss also did not respond to NaCl or polyethylene glycol treatments (which result in cellular dehydration or extracellular hypovolemia) and returned to a state of adipsia when food was removed. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)