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Neural correlates of mental rehearsal in dorsal premotor cortex Paul Cisek John F. Kalaska Supplementary Information Supplementary Methods Behavioural task Monkeys sat in front of a computer screen positioned vertically at eye-level 48cm away. During the performance task, the monkeys controlled the motion of an on-screen cursor by moving the lower end of a 2 degree-of-freedom pendulum in the horizontal plane with the arm contralateral to the recording site. The monkeys could not see their arm and task performance was guided entirely by the instructional cues and cursor motions on the monitor. The ipsilateral arm was restrained. During the observation task, the monkeys sat in the same position relative to the screen but both arms were lightly restrained, and the pendulum was moved by the experimenter who grasped it out of the monkey’s sight. The observation task was introduced to the monkeys abruptly during the recording phase of the project and did not form part of the training regimen. In both conditions, the monkey’s gaze was unconstrained and eye movements were measured at 100 Hz using an infrared oculometer (Dr. Bouis, Karlsruhe). During the performance task1 (Fig. 1a), monkeys began by placing the on-screen cursor within a central green circle (1.5cm radius) for a 500ms centre-hold-time (CHT). Next, two coloured cue circles (2cm radius), one red and one blue, appeared at two out of 8 possible target locations on the circumference of an 8cm radius circle, for a spatial-cue-on period (1000ms) and then disappeared for a spatial-cue-off period (500-1500ms). Next, the central circle changed colour to either red or blue, for a colour-cue period (1500-2500ms). This change in colour instructed which of the two memorised colour-coded spatial-cue locations was the selected target for the upcoming movement. Finally, the central circle disappeared and 8 identical green circles (2cm radius) appeared at the 8 peripheral locations. This GO signal instructed the monkeys to mo