The role of central dopaminergic neural activity for the maintenance of hypertension was tested. Two groups of animals were prepared; 1) Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) at 14 weeks of age which reveal hypertension and 2) age-matched normotensive Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY). Blood pressures and dopamine turnover rate were measured from animals in each group. Dopamine turnover rate was determined in four brain regions such as telence-phalon, hypothalamus/thalamus, midbrain and pons/medulla, from concentration of dopamine at time zero, 1 and 2 hours after alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine (AMPT) was injected into animals. In SHR dopamine turnover rate was greater than normotensive rats in only midbrain. The result from the present study implicates that dopaminergic neural activity in midbrain may be positively coupled to the manifestation of hypertension in SHR.