The anatomical distribution of neurotensin perikarya and fibers in rat brain, spinal cord, and pituitary has been studied by immunohistochemistry. Neurotensin immunoreactivity is widely distributed throughout the brain, especially in forebrain and midbrain limbic structures, but also in the pons, medulla, and spinal cord. Areas with low immunoreactivity, or lack of it, stand out and include most of the hippocampus, isocortex, ventromedial and dorsomedial hypothalamic nuclei, somatomotor nuclei, cerebellum, and dorsal column nuclei. Strong neurotensin immunoreactivity is found in accumbens-caudate-putamen, central and medial amygdaloid nuclei, ventrolateral septum, pars lateralis of the nucleus of the stria terminalis, paraventricular, periventricular, and lateral hypothalamus, median eminence, thalamic intralaminar and periventricular nuclei, ventral tegmentum, central gray, certain raphe nuclei, locus ceruleus, nucleus parabrachialis medialis and lateralis, nucleus of the solitary tract and area postrema, spinal and trigeminal substantia gelatinosa, as well as certain cells in the anterior pituitary. The anatomical data suggest the existence of neurotensin circuits for (1) the control of autonomic-endocrine functions, involving the nucleus tractus solitarii, area postrema, nucleus ambiguus, nucleus parabrachialis, nucleus paraventricularis, nucleus centralis amygdalae, and pars lateralis of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis; and (2) for the transmission and modulation of certain somatosensory qualities, involving the spinal substantia gelatinosa, trigeminal sensory nuclei, and thalamic intralaminar nuclei.