A reassessment of the brain mechanisms that control thirst

The classic " hypothalamocentric " theory of thirst has increasingly been challenged because the effects of hypothalamic lesions are not as behaviorally or anatomically specific as earlier research indicated. Instead, the attention of investigators in the field has increasingly been drawn to the lateral preoptic region and the tissues surrounding the anterior third ventricle. The present paper reviews these developments and proposes that still another diencephalic structure, the subthalamic region known as the zona incerta, may play a major role in the regulation of thirst and water intake.