What part of the brain controls hunger?

The hypothalamus controls hunger by integrating signals about the body’s energy needs and helping regulate appetite, food intake, and satiety. It is a small region at the base of the brain, near the pituitary gland, but it influences many essential homeostatic functions.

Within it, the arcuate nucleus contains neurons that promote or suppress eating. Hunger-promoting NPY/AgRP neurons respond partly to ghrelin, a hormone released mainly by the stomach when it is empty. POMC/CART neurons help signal satiety and are influenced by leptin and insulin, which reflect longer-term energy stores and recent food intake.

A common mix-up is naming the “hunger center” as one precise spot. The hypothalamus is the accepted broad answer, but several of its regions participate: the lateral hypothalamus is associated with feeding motivation, while the ventromedial hypothalamus and related circuits contribute to satiety and energy balance. The brainstem, reward pathways, and gut hormones also influence eating, but they do not replace the hypothalamus as the canonical answer to this question.