Salivation during chewing is said to be induced by oral sensory afferents. However, activity of the feeding center (the lateral hypothalamus, LH) may affect salivation. To evaluated the role of LH activity on salivation during chewing, we recorded submandibular salivary secretion and electromyographic (EMG) activity of jaw muscles from freely moving rats. The following results were obtained: 1) the amount of saliva was not proportion to magnitude of EMG activity; 2) when unilateral LH was destroyed, far smaller amount of saliva was secreted from the ipsilateral than contralateral side of the submandibular gland. 3) when a mixture of glutamate and bicuculine was injected into LH, EMG activities increased while salivation decreased. These results suggest that salivation during chewing is not simply induced by reflex activation of the oral sensory afferents and is mainly controlled by the centrifugal activity from the feeding center.