Santiago Ramón y Cajal is one of the most important and recognized Spanish figures in the field of neuroscience.

A Nobel Prize winner along with Golgi, this scientist contributed greatly to the understanding of the functioning of the nervous system and the network of neurons that form the brain. In addition, made detailed illustrations about the brain and neurons , with which to show the functioning of the brain. In this article we make a brief review of his illustrations and his contributions to neuroscience.

Brief biography

Santiago Ramón y Cajal was born in 1852 in the town of Petilla de Aragón in Navarra. Son of Antonia Cajal and Justo Ramón, he spent his childhood continually changing his residence as his father was a surgeon. Since childhood he had great artistic skills , dreaming of devoting himself to painting, although his father would eventually convince him to study medicine. He graduated from the University of Zaragoza in 1873, and was later sent to the Cuban war where he worked as a doctor.

After returning, he would get his doctorate in Madrid. He would later marry Silveria Fañanás García and have seven children. It was in 1887 that he moved to Barcelona, where he made some of his main discoveries , being the first to isolate and study the neuron as a key element of the nervous system, or the connections between these cells.

In 1892 he would return to Madrid, where he would live until his death. In 1906 he received, together with the Italian Camillo Golgi, the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. He retired in 1926, and his wife died of tuberculosis four years later. He died on October 17, 1934 due to coronary problems linked to intestinal problems.

Ramón y Cajal and his images: methods used

During the years he spent researching, Ramón y Cajal discovered a great deal of information regarding the functioning and structure of the nervous system. How?

When making his observations, this researcher used the staining method created by Camile Golgi , which using silver chromate allowed the observation of part of the brain tissue. Ramón y Cajal introduced several improvements in order to obtain a clearer image, in addition to thinking about investigating young cells in order to be able to distinguish whether the brain is a continuous element or is made up of simpler structures.

However, in reflecting his findings he encountered many difficulties.At that time the current techniques of image taking did not exist, being very complicated that a scientist could show the world a faithful reflection of what was happening at a microscopic level beyond the mere description. This researcher would use illustration for this purpose.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal had not abandoned the artistic side that he had shown in his childhood. The researcher would feel real pleasure when representing his discoveries pictorially, as well as allowing him to clearly show the results of his observations to others. Thanks to them we can see how the researcher clearly established aspects such as the morphology of neurons and multiple components, his drawings being a work of great scientific utility that allowed us to know the form and imagine the functioning of the basic units of the nervous system, the neurons.

For him, a good drawing meant the creation of valuable scientific documentation, regardless of the interpretation given to it. The images created by Ramón y Cajal are a faithful representation of the nervous system and its organization, surprising for their level of fidelity and accuracy, examples of which are the illustration of pyramidal neurons, astrocytes or the microglia.

Discovering the world of neurons

Here you can see a selection of the drawings that Santiago Ramón y Cajal himself created to reflect his findings.

Some of his discoveries

The role of Santiago Ramón y Cajal in the field of neuroscience is of fundamental importance. It is not in vain that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. The reason for such importance is due to the great discoveries he made, some of which we set out below.

Firstly, we owe Ramón y Cajal the knowledge that the basic unit of the nervous system is the neuron . Prior to him, the existence of the neuron theory (according to which neurons are the basic element of the neuron network, the latter being based on the existence of basic elements that, although they communicate, are not continuously available) and the reticular theory (which proposes that the nervous system is a continuous network) were hypothesized that the nervous system was a single set of interconnected networks that functioned in unison.

Thanks to the modifications in Golgi’s stain, the Spanish researcher would realize that although the nervous system acts as a system, it is composed of separate and independent cells that although they have a certain connection do not touch each other because there is a synaptic space between them. Thus, Ramón y Cajal would demonstrate the neuronal theory, giving rise to the doctrine of the neuron, which is still in force today.

His theories also reflected the way in which the nerve impulse is transmitted through the system . For example, his research generated an explanation for why the nerve impulse travels only in one direction, the so-called law of dynamic polarization.

Finally, another of his discoveries has to do with the discovery and analysis of parts of neurons, such as dendritic spines , which were previously considered to be a product of the functioning of the nervous system. We now know, thanks to him, that these spines are an important part of each neuron and that they actively participate in the transmission of information.