Long-term raw color image stacks of ring-confined <em>Physarum polycephalum</em> for extraction of contractile activity: Part 1

This deposit contains the first half of a raw-image dataset comprising long-term color image stacks of Physarum polycephalum confined in annular (ring) geometries. Images were acquired as time series (image stacks) that capture the evolution of contractile activity and network reorganisation over extended durations (a few-second frame rate for tens of hours). Contractile dynamics are visible only indirectly in the raw frames and require standard image-processing and time-series analysis to extract quantitative measures (local contraction amplitude, phase, wave direction, vein diameter, etc.). The dataset is intended for reuse in studies of large-scale self-organisation and transport in biological networks, and as a benchmark for image-processing, segmentation, tracking, and time-series analysis methods. , , # Long-term raw color image stacks of ring-confined *Physarum polycephalum* for extraction of contractile activity: Part 1 Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.2z34tmq08](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2z34tmq08) ## Description of the data and file structure This dataset constitutes the first part of the complete dataset containing data and code required to replicate analyses in Saiseau, Busson, and Durand (submitted, see preprint [https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.02651](https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.02651)). It was collected to characterise slow, system-scale modulations of contractile activity in the slime mould *Physarum polycephalum* confined in annular (ring) chambers. Plasmodia were grown on aqueous agar substrates (5 with/ 11 without nutrients) and then shaped into concentric annular specimens by pressing thin cylindrical walls into the gel; ring perimeters in this dataset range from 6.0 to 13.5 cm (aspect ratios =11–41). We recorded 47 ring experiments obtained from 16 indiv..., ,