Galanin has previously been reported to elicit feeding in satiated animals when injected into the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus. It is not known, however, 1) whether this action is due to activation of feeding signals or suppression of satiety signals or both or 2) whether other hypothalamic regions such as the lateral hypothalamus (LH) or the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) are involved in this action. The effects of galanin on food intake were therefore examined in satiated and in fasted rats both after intracerebroventricular injection (0.1, 1, and 10 micrograms/10 microliters) and after microinjection (1 and 5 micrograms/0.5 microliters) into the LH and VMH. Twenty minutes after intracerebroventricular injection, galanin significantly and dose dependently augmented food intake by up to sevenfold in freely feeding rats and by up to 79% in fasted animals. The galanin-induced augmentation of cumulative food intake up to 2 h after injection was due to the initial increase in food consumption during the 0 to 20-min interval. This suggests that galanin acts by activation of feeding behavior and not by suppression of satiety signals in these fasted animals, in which satiety signals are presumably not initially operative. Twenty minutes after intrahypothalamic injections into both the LH and VMH, galanin (5 micrograms) significantly increased food consumption, fivefold in freely feeding rats and 30-35% in fasted rats. Thus stimulation of feeding by centrally injected galanin also involves loci within the LH and VMH.