Primary motor cortex (M1) neurons traditionally have been viewed as "upper motor neurons" that directly drive spinal motoneuron pools, particularly during finger movements. We used spike-triggered averages (SpikeTAs) of electromyographic (EMG) activity to select neurons whose spikes signaled the arrival of input in motoneuron pools, and examined the degree of similarity between the activity patterns of these neurons and their target muscles during 12 individuated finger and wrist movements. Neuron-EMG similarity generally was low. Similarity was unrelated to the strength of the SpikeTA effect, to whether the effect was pure versus synchrony, or to the number of muscles influenced by the neuron. Nevertheless, the sum of neuron activity patterns, each weighted by the sign and strength of its SpikeTA effect, could be more similar to the EMG than the average similarity of individual neurons. Significant correlations between the weighted sum of neuron activity patterns and EMG were obtained in 6 of 17 muscles, but showed R² values ranging from 0.26 to 0.42. These observations suggest that additional factors--including inputs from other sources, and non-linear summation of inputs to motoneuron pools--also contributed to EMG activity. Furthermore, though each of these M1 neurons produced SpikeTA effects with a significant peak or trough 6-16 ms after the triggering spike, shifting the weighted sum of neuron activity to lead the EMG by 40-60 ms increased their similarity, suggesting that the influence of M1 neurons which produce SpikeTA effects includes substantial synaptic integration that in part may reach the motoneuron pools over less direct pathways.