Study Guide for Chapter 16

1.         Where is the hypothalamus located in the brain, and in general what is its primary function?

2.         What do the following terms refer to: humoral response, visceromotor response, and somatic motor response?

3.         You should be able to describe the layers of the hypothalamus and provide a general description of the function or connectedness of each (just in general, don’t be overly specific). Also the relative position of the preoptic area, etc.

4.         How does the hypothalamus help regulate the autonomic nervous system? (This comes from material from class on dealing with chronic pain— you can also look it up in

            Chapter 15)

5.         What evidence supports the lipostatic hypothesis? What role does leptin play in this hypothesis. You should read what your book has to say on pages 513-514 regarding the 

            long-term regulation of body fat.

6.         Explain the “glucostat” monitoring system—how does the presence or absence of glucose in the blood trigger or halt eating? What is the role of insulin?

7.         What roles do the lateral hypothalamus (LH) and the ventrolmedial hypothalamus (VMH) appear to play in regulating feeding behavior? Why are the terms “satiety center”

            and  “hunger center” somewhat inaccurate?

8.         Explain osmotic and hypovolemic thirst (your text refers to these as osmometric and volumetric thirst). You should read the summary in the book (including the figure captions)

            and I am providing a diagram as well.

9.         What does it mean if a solution is isotonic, hypertonic, or hypotonic?

10.       What is the cause of the following types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and diabetes insipidus. (Your book doesn’t necessarily discuss all three, but you should have the means

            to look them up.)

11.       What happens if you have too little insulin? What about too much?

12.       What are ways in which humans regulate temperature? Where do you find thermoreceptors for this regulation?

13.       In addition to physiological mechanisms, we also engage in behavioral mechanisms for temperature regulation—you should know the primary behaviors we engage in to

            increase or decrease our body temperature.

Your text has an excellent chart on page 530 that sums the hypothalamic responses to motivating stimuli (Table 16.2). You should try to understand this chart (in other words, look at it and really think about what it means).