The brain processes information by transforming sensory influx into perceptual representations to update its evaluation of the outside world and decide on adequate actions to perform. How neuronal activity encodes such an information is a question that lies at the core of neuroscience. Pioneer insights demonstrated variation of neuronal firing rate in the motor cortex depending on a preferred direction of movement, as well as tuning curves in the visual system. This classical view of the so-called “neural coding” emphasize the importance of information carried by changes in the neuronal rate activity. In parallel, the concept emerged that computational processes in the brain could also rely on the relative timing of neuronal spikes among neurons within a functional assembly. Precise synchronization of spike events and modulation of discharge rate may serve different and complementary functions; they act in conjunction at some times but not at others, depending on the behavioral context. Here we use decoding techniques to compare different types of activity patterns in laminar recordings from the premotor and motor cortices in monkeys performing a match-to-delay decision-making task. We compare several metrics that diversely capture changes in firing rate and/or synchrony across putative neuronal units extracted by spike sorting. We specifically explore different stages of information transformation during the task, from the stimulus to the reaching action in response. Taken together, results showed both types of neuronal patterns or representations, but involving distinct neurons in the columnar organization, which we discuss in light of previous results.