Multi-area activity in mouse motor cortex associated with one- and two-handed oromanual dexterity

Cortical dynamics during goal-directed dexterous hand movements are mainly understood from paradigms involving use of the contralateral hand. To study how movement-related activity changes when the ipsilateral or both hands are used, we exploited a natural form of rodent manual dexterity – food handling – that rodents can perform uni- or bimanually. We sampled kilohertz 3D kinematics as mice used either or both hands to manipulate food, while recording spiking activity in forelimb primary (fl-M1) and secondary (fl-M2) motor cortices, and in a lateral oral and manual (LOM) motor cortex area implicated in oromanual food handling. Unit- and population-level analyses showed that activity in fl-M1 and fl-M2 depended on both laterality (ipsi- vs contralateral) and “manuality” (uni- vs bimanual), with few differences between the two areas. By comparison, activity in LOM was largely laterality- and manuality-invariant. These results demonstrate how activity in multiple areas of mouse motor cortex varies as the same task is performed unimanually with either hand or bimanually with both. Our findings support a model in which fl-M1 and fl-M2 maintain separable information about both forelimbs for bimanual coordination, while LOM encodes ingestion-related forelimb parameters necessary for oromanual coordination.