Abstract What are the neural correlates that distinguish goal-directed (G) from non-goal-directed movements (nG)? We investigated this question in the monkey frontal eye field, which is implicated in voluntary control of saccades. We found that only for G-saccades, the variability in spike rate across trials decreased, the regularity of spike timings within trials increased, the neural activity increased earlier from baseline and had a concurrent reduction of LFP beta band power.