We investigated and quantified the spontaneous patterns of motility in the isolated guinea-pig proximal and distal colon taken from adult animals. During spontaneous emptying, profiles of proximal and distal colon were recorded with a video camera, and image analysis was used to construct spatio-temporal maps of the motions of the intestinal wall. Four patterns of motility were recorded. In the proximal colon there were neurally mediated contractions that propagated in the aboral direction at 4.1 mm s–1, gently pushing the soft contents aborally; these are likely to represent spontaneous peristaltic behaviour. A second pattern, insensitive to tetrodotoxin (TTX; 0.6 μM), consisted, in both oral and aboral propagation, of shallow contractions of the circular muscle (ripples). These contractions propagated aborally at 2.8 ± 0.45 mm s–1 and orally at 2.03 ± 0.31 mm s–1 (n=10). Of these TTX-resistant contractions, 22.5% propagated both orally and aborally from a common origin. The orally propagated component of these myogenic contractions is likely to correspond to the antiperistalsis widely described in the proximal colon. In the distal colon, two patterns of motor activity were observed. One, induced by natural or artificial pellets, consisted of peristaltic contractions that pushed the pellets aborally at 0.8 mm s–1 and expelled a pellet every 108 s. In the interval between pellet propulsion and after the distal colon had emptied all of its pellets a second, nerve-mediated pattern of motor activity, consisting of clusters of annular circular muscle contractions separated by short dilated regions, slowly propagated aborally at 0.3 mm s–1. Both of these motor patterns were abolished by TTX (0.6 μM). A latex balloon, inserted at the oral end of the empty isolated distal colon and inflated to a size similar to faecal pellets, was propelled at 1.4 mm s–1. Epoxy resin-covered natural pellets were propelled at a similar speed of 1.6 mm s−1.Our data revealed that myogenic and neurogenic patterns of propagated contractions in the colon occur in isolated preparations and are involved in emptying the colon.