All parts of the brain › Ventromedial hypothalamus

Where is the ventromedial hypothalamus?

The ventromedial hypothalamus is a nucleus low in the middle (tuberal) region of the hypothalamus, close to the midline, with the arcuate nucleus along its lower outer edge. It is best known as the brain’s satiety centre, the place tied to the feeling of fullness. [1][2][3]

The hypothalamus lit in red on a 3D model of the brain cut by a side (sagittal) slice, seen from the left

Loading the 3D brain…

Lit: the whole hypothalamus.

Slice

Opens cut by a side (sagittal) slice through the hypothalamus, which holds the ventromedial hypothalamus. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap any part to name it; .

Not a separate shape in this atlas; lit: the part that holds it. Lit: the whole hypothalamus. The ventromedial hypothalamus is a nucleus inside the hypothalamus, not a separate organ; BodyParts3D has no shape for it, so the whole hypothalamus is lit and nothing is drawn at a guessed point. Look at the lower half of the middle of the lit hypothalamus, near the midline, just above the arcuate nucleus at its floor. [3][1]

Lit here: the hypothalamus, the part that holds the ventromedial hypothalamus — see it on its own page.

Next to it, each lit on its own page: arcuate nucleus, dorsomedial hypothalamus, lateral hypothalamus.

Where it is

Of the hypothalamus’s three regions front to back (preoptic/anterior, tuberal, mammillary/posterior), it belongs to the middle, tuberal region, in its medial area, together with the dorsomedial and arcuate nuclei. [1]
Its name gives its place: ventro-, the lower side, and medial, towards the midline; the dorsomedial nucleus lies above it, and the two border each other. [1][4]
The arcuate nucleus lies against its lower outer (ventrolateral) edge; glucose-sensing neurons are packed into the narrow cell-poor strip between the two. [2]
It has four subdivisions, anterior (VMHa), dorsomedial (VMHdm), ventrolateral (VMHvl) and central (VMHc), which differ in anatomy, chemistry and behaviour. [3]

What it does

It is most commonly associated with satiety, the recognition of the feeling of fullness, and Wikipedia describes it as involved in ending hunger, fear, thermoregulation and sexual activity. [3]
It holds glucose-sensing neurons, some excited and some inhibited by glucose, that respond to the body’s fat signals insulin and leptin and play an important role in the hormone and nerve responses that bring blood glucose back up when it falls too low. [2]
Its ventrolateral part is packed with estrogen and progesterone receptors (co-expressed in nearly all its cells there); it plays a role in female mating posture (lordosis) and in estrogen-driven movement and heat production. [5][3]
In mice, switching on estrogen-receptor neurons of the ventrolateral part sets off an immediate attack and silencing them stops naturally occurring attack, so it is also a hub for defensive and territorial behaviour. [5]
Honest limit: the “satiety centre” label comes from rat lesion experiments. One researcher, Gold, reported that a precise cut confined to the nucleus did not change eating, which suggested passing fibres were behind the effect; other anatomical studies did not reproduce his result, and the label has held. [3]

Connections

The stria terminalis carries fibres from the amygdala to the hypothalamus, including to its ventromedial nucleus. [1]
It sends one of the strongest hypothalamic projections to the periaqueductal grey of the midbrain: of the Allen mouse brain atlas tracer injections ranked by the size of their endings in the periaqueductal grey, 6 of the top 10 were in the VMH. [5]

Other names

Also called the ventromedial nucleus (VMN) or the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus; VMN, VMH and ventromedial hypothalamus are used interchangeably. It is not the ventromedial nucleus of the spinal cord, nor the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. [3]

Size

The model has no shape for the ventromedial hypothalamus itself, so it is not measured here. The hypothalamus that holds it measures about 18 mm front to back, 20 mm top to bottom and 17 mm side to side on this model (the box it fits in, not its volume). [6]

Sources

Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); real brains vary in size and shape, so its measurements describe one model, not anyone’s brain.