Stimulation of several areas of the hypothalamus in the brain causes an animal to experience extreme hunger, a voracious appetite, and an intense desire to search for food. The area most associated with hunger is the lateral hypothalamic area. Damage to this area sometimes causes the animal to lose desire for food, sometimes causing lethal starvation. On the other hand, a centre in the hypothalamus that opposes the desire for food, called the satiety centre, is located in the ventromedial nucleus. When this centre is stimulated electrically, an animal that is eating food suddenly stops eating and shows complete indifference to food. However, if this area is destroyed bilaterally, the animal cannot be satiated; instead, its hypothalamic hunger centres become overactive, so that it has a voracious appetite, resulting in tremendous obesity.