Cajal, Santiago Ramon

Most neuroscientists regard the ideas and observations of Santiago Ramon Y Cajal at the end of 19th century as the beginning of the cellular exploration of just how memory is retained in the brain. Upon his original observation of synaptic conjunction between neurons, he immediately entertained the idea that the modification of these conjunctions could form the anatomical basis responsible for the persistence of memory. 

Camillo Golgi and Spanish anatomist Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934) share the Nobel Prize... 

Ramon y Cajal, Santiago. Nobel Lecture, 1906. Available online. URL http //nobelprize.org/nobel prizes/medicine/laureates/1906/ cajal-lecture.pdf Accessed May 28, 2009. Santiago Ramon y Cajal s Nobel lecture describes his research techniques and results. 

Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1911), Spanish histologist, first discovers the nature of the connection between nerves, showing that the nervous system consists of a maze of individual cells. He demonstrates that neurons do not touch, but that the signal somehow crosses a gap (now termed a synapse.)... 

Since the first description of glial cells, Camillo Golgi (1843-1926) and Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934) recognized that astrocytes are located in strategic positions between neurons and capillaries to act as a conduit for signals between different cells types in the central nervous system (CNS Ramon y Cajal, 1899). Later on, examination of the nervous system at the ultrastructural level has shown that astrocytes can be intimately associated with synapses, literally enwrapping many pre- and postsynaptic terminals. For instance, in the hippocampus, 57% of the axon-spine interfaces are associated with astrocytes (Ventura and Harris, 1999). It is likely that this close physical relationship provides an opportunity for many functional interactions between astrocytes and neurons. 

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