Behavioral task performance.

<p><b>A</b>) A schematic of the forelimb movement task and recording sites for the two motor cortices. Rats held (for 1 s) and pulled a spout-lever to acquire reward water in a head-fixed condition. Multineuronal activity was recorded from the caudal and rostral forelimb areas (CFA and RFA) [primary and secondary motor cortices (M1 and M2), respectively] during task performance. <i>Upper right</i>: electrode tracks (arrowheads; layer 5) for the CFA and RFA recordings in Nissl-stained sections. See <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0098662#s2" target="_blank">Materials and Methods</a> for details. <b>B</b>) Lever trajectory and electromyogram (EMG) activity in right forelimb. <i>Top</i>: lever and EMG traces for several trials. <i>Bottom</i>: averaged EMG power aligned with the end of push or the onset of pull movements (vertical lines). <b>C</b>) Behavioral task performance. <i>Top</i>: hold time until the lever pull onset in response to cue tone presentation after the hold period (1 s) in a rat. Black and gray colors indicate correct and error trial responses, respectively. <i>Bottom</i>: peak distribution of hold time in all of the rats.