Ramón y Cajal described the brain with these drawings

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

Nobel Laureate together with Golgi, this scientist contributed greatly to the understanding of the functioning of the nervous system and the network of neurons that make up the brain. Besides that, he made detailed illustrations of the brain and neurons, with which to show the functioning of the brain. In this article we briefly review his illustrations and his contributions to neuroscience.

• Related article: "Types of neurons: characteristics and functions"

Short biography

Santiago Ramón y Cajal was born in 1852 in the Navarrese town of Petilla de Aragón. Son of Antonia Cajal and Justo Ramón, he spent his childhood continuously changing residence as his father was his surgeon. Since he was a child he had great artistic abilities, dreaming of dedicating himself to painting, although his father would end up convincing him to study medicine. He graduated from the University of Zaragoza in 1873, and later would be sent to the war in Cuba where he would work as a doctor.

After returning, he would take his doctorate in Madrid. Later he would marry Silveria Fañanás García and have seven children. It would be in 1887 when he would move to Barcelona, ​​where he would make 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 in 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 that 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 sharper image, in addition to thinking about investigating young cells in order to distinguish whether the brain is a continuous element or is made up of more structures simple.

However, when it came to reflecting his discoveries, he encountered many difficulties. At that time, current imaging techniques did not exist, making it very difficult for a scientist to show the world a true reflection of what was happening at the microscopic level beyond mere description. This researcher would use the illustration for this.

And it is that Santiago Ramón y Cajal had not abandoned the artistic aspect that he manifested already in childhood. The researcher would take real pleasure in representing his discoveries pictorially, as well as allowing him to clearly show others the results of his observations. Thanks to them we can observe 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 know the shape 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 represent a faithful representation of the nervous system and its organization, surprising for its level of fidelity and accuracy, being examples of this the illustration of neurons pyramidal, astrocytes or microglia.

Discovering the world of neurons

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

Some of his discoveries

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

First of all, we owe Ramón y Cajal the knowledge that the basic unit of the nervous system is the neuron. Before him, the existence of the neuronal theory (according to which neurons are the basic element of the neural network, based on the existence of basic elements that, although communicated, were not readily available keep going) and the lattice theory (which proposes that the nervous system is a continuous network) hypothesis that the nervous system was a single set of interconnected networks that worked in unison.

Thanks to the modifications in the Golgi staining, 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 a synaptic space between them. Thus, Ramón y Cajal would demonstrate the neuronal theory, giving rise to the neuron doctrine, which is still in force today.

His theories also reflected the way the nerve impulse travels 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 have to do with the discovery and analysis of parts of neurons, like dendritic spines, which were previously considered a product of the functioning of the nervous system. Now we know, thanks to him, that these spines are an important part of each neuron and that they actively participate in the transmission of information.