Contractions of a segment of bowel result in alterations of its blood flow. However, the precise temporal and spacial relationships between contractions and mucosal blood flow are unknown. Rats were fitted with strain gauge force transducers and implanted with silver wire electrodes into the muscularis externa of the stomach. In vivo microscopic observation of motility and of the gastric mucosal blood flow was performed during electrical field-stimulated contractions. Contractions originated in the midcorpus, were 0.237 +/- 0.018 cm wide, traveled along the corpus at 0.133 +/- 0.024 cm/s, and had a duration of 5.9 +/- 0.1 s. Antral contractions were 0.174 +/- 0.032 cm wide, traveled at 0.070 +/- 0.009 cm/s, and had a duration of 5.6 +/- 0.7 s. During the contraction, capillary flow velocity in the corpus decreased from a basal value of 410 +/- 105 to 206 +/- 104 microns/s at the peak of a contraction. Five seconds after the contraction was released hyperemia was observed with the flow velocity increasing to 570 +/- 102 microns/s. In the antrum, flow stopped completely during the contraction irrespective of the initial flow velocity and no hyperemia occurred with release of the contraction; rather, flow velocity slowly returned to baseline values. In both regions the flow reductions were in phase with the contractions as measured by the force transducers. These studies provide direct evidence that strong gastric contractions can effectively reduce or stop gastric mucosal blood flow.