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H$\alpha$ luminosities of a small sample of barred ``hot spot'' galaxies are compared to IRAS properties. Several correlations are found, in particular between the strength of circumnuclear H$\alpha$ emission and the 25-$\mu$m enhancement, confirming the hypothesis of Hawarden et al. (1986, {MNRAS,} 221, 41P) that the excess ``warm'' IRAS flux in barred spirals is due to vigorous circumnuclear star formation. A simple two-component model fit to the data indicates that both Lyman-continuum and H$\alpha$ absorption are much higher in the hot spot regions than in disk HII regions. Circumnuclear star formation rates derived from corrected H$\alpha$ luminosities are an order of magnitude greater than those derived assuming properties similar to disk HII regions, and if such rates are sustained by bar-driven gas inflow imply rapid evolution of the central regions of these galaxies.
