The dynamics of propagating myogenic contractions in the wall of the resting ex vivo urinary bladder of the rabbit were characterised by spatiotemporal maps and related to cyclic variation in intravesical pressure (pves). Patches of propagating contractions (PPCs) enlarged and involuted in near synchrony with peaks in intravesical pressure (pves) (3.85 mean ± 0.3cpm). and were preceded by regions of stretch. The maximum area of the bladder undergoing contraction (55.28±2.65 %) and the sizes of individual PPCs (42.61 ± 1.65 mm2) coincided with the peak in pves. PPCs, originated and propagated within temporary patch domains (TPDs) and comprised groups of near synchronous cyclic propagating individual contractions (PICs). The TPDs were located principally along the vertical axis of the anterior surface of the bladder. The sites of origin of PICs within PPCs were inconsistent, consecutive contractions often propagating in opposite directions along linear maps of strain rate. Similar patterns of movement occurred in areas of the anterior bladder wall that had been stripped of mucosa. Intravesical pressure (pves) varied cyclically with area of contraction and with the indices of aggregation of PPCs, indicating that they grew by peripheral enlargement and collision without annihilation. The synchronisation of PICs within PPCs was sometimes lost, uncoordinated PICs then occurring irregularly (between 4 and 20 cpm) having little effect on Pves The authors postulate that the formation and involution of PPCs within a TPD resulted from cyclic variation in excitation, that increased the incidence and distance over which component PICs propagated.