A cortical circuit for orchestrating oromanual food manipulation
Z. Josh Huang, Xu An, Yi Li, Katherine Matho, Hemanth Mohan, X. Hermione Xu, Ian Whishaw, Adam Kepecs

TL;DR
The study identifies a specific brain region and its circuitry that coordinates hand and mouth movements for eating in mice.
Contribution
The discovery of a cortical area (RFO) and its cell-type-specific circuitry that orchestrates oromanual food manipulation in mice.
Findings
Activation of RFO neurons induces coordinated posture, limb, and orofacial movements resembling eating.
Pharmacological inactivation of RFO impairs posture, hand use, and coordination during pasta eating.
RFO PT Fezf2 and IT PlxnD1 neurons regulate hand-mouth coordination through distinct subcortical projections.
Abstract
The seamless coordination of hands and mouth — whether in humans eating corn on the cob or mice extracting sunflower seeds — represents one of evolution's most sophisticated motor achievements. Whereas spinal and brainstem circuits implement basic forelimb and orofacial actions, whether there is a specialized cortical circuit that assembles these actions to enable skilled oromanual manipulation remains unclear. Here, we discover a cortical area and its cell-type-specific circuitry that govern oromanual food manipulation in mice. An optogenetic screen of cortical areas and projection neuron types identified a rostral forelimb-orofacial area (RFO), wherein activation of pyramidal tract (PT Fezf2 ) and intratelencephalic (IT PlxnD1 ) neurons induced concerted posture, forelimb and orofacial movements resembling eating. In a freely moving pasta-eating behavior, pharmacological RFO…
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Taxonomy
TopicsInfant Health and Development · Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
