Persistent depression of wood-gnawing following ventromedial hypothalamic lesions in the rat

Female rats with ventromedial hypothalamic lesions that resulted in hyperphagia and obesity displayed chronically reduced levels of wood gnawing that persisted for more than 200 days post-operatively. Reduced wood gnawing was apparent even when the animals were totally deprived of food, thus ruling out the possibility that the effect was secondary to hyperphagia.