圣地亚哥·拉蒙·卡哈尔（Santiago Ramón y Cajal,1852—1934年）是西班牙神经学家、病理学家、艺术家，他醉心于大脑研究，绘制了复杂、美丽、精确的大脑内部工作原理图。时至今日，在神经科学领域，这些图仍然被用来展示构成记忆和人类思维基础的神经架构。
联合国教科文组织
1877年，卡哈尔用自己在西班牙军队当军医时挣的钱买了一台显微镜。他透过显微镜观察研究，徒手但高度精确地画出了大脑内部的微小结构，包括神经元，或者说神经细胞。
1903年，卡哈尔在工作中运用了意大利医生卡米洛·高尔基（Camillo Golgi，1843—1926年）开创的一项技术。高尔基用硝酸银将神经组织染成黑色，这样就可以将神经元与周围的透明细胞区分开来。
卡哈尔进一步完善了这项技术。1913年，他开始用一种金色的染色剂标绘中枢神经系统，此后创作了一系列非常精美细致的图绘，包含人类大脑的不同区域以及幼小动物的脊髓。
卡哈尔首先假设大脑中的神经元相互接触，但并不连接。这一假设直到20世纪50年代才得到科学证明。这种学说被称为神经元理论，它认为大脑中的每个神经元都是独立的，神经元通过突触进行交流。1906年，卡哈尔和高尔基共同获得了诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。卡哈尔是第一位获得该奖项的西班牙科学家。
2017年，卡哈尔的档案（包括科学手稿、图纸、绘画、照片、书籍和信件）被收入联合国教科文组织《世界记忆名录》（Memory of the World Register）。随后，有人呼吁由专门的博物馆永久收藏卡哈尔的文化档案，展示他的发现以及这些发现对当今神经科学的影响。
与此同时，卡哈尔的工作成果始终蕴含着科学与艺术的双重价值。2020年，来自六个国家的志愿者在爱丁堡大学的爱丁堡神经科学社团合作创建了卡哈尔刺绣项目。关于卡哈尔图绘的81幅精美的手工刺绣展板于2020年在虚拟的欧洲神经科学学会联盟（FENS）论坛上展出，后于2021年9月被用作《柳叶刀-神经病学》（The Lancet Neurology）杂志的封面。
Santiago Ramón y Cajal: The first to map the human brain
The Spanish neuroscientist, pathologist, and artist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) was fascinated by the brain. His intricate, beautiful, and accurate illustrations of the inner workings of the brain are still used in neuroscience to demonstrate the neural architecture that underlies memory and human thought.
UNESCO
In 1877, Cajal saved up the money he had earned as a medical officer in the Spanish army to buy himself a microscope. Looking through the lens, he studied and drew – free-hand but with great precision – the tiny structures within the brain, including neurons, or nerve cells.
Cajal based his work on a technique pioneered by the Italian physician Camillo Golgi (1843-1926) in 1903. Using silver nitrate to stain nerve tissue, Golgi was the first to stain neurons black, so they could be distinguished from the surrounding transparent cells.
Cajal perfected this technique, using a gold stain in 1913 to map the central nervous system. He created an extraordinary catalogue of detailed and meticulous drawings, covering different regions of the human brain, and the spinal cords of young animals.
Cajal started from the assumption – which would not be scientifically proven until the 1950s – that neurons in the brain are in touch, but do not touch each other. Known as the neuron doctrine, it states that every neuron in the brain is separate and that neurons communicate across synapses. In 1906, Cajal and Golgi were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Cajal was the first Spanish scientist to be awarded the prize.
In 2017, Cajal’s archives – which included scientific manuscripts, drawings, paintings, photos, books, and correspondence – were included in the UNESCO Memory of the World register. Subsequently, there have been calls for Cajal's cultural archive to be given permanent space in a dedicated museum to showcase his discoveries and their influence on neuroscience today.
Meanwhile, Cajal’s work continues to bridge science and art. In 2020, volunteers across six countries collaborated to create the Cajal Embroidery Project at the University of Edinburgh’s Edinburgh Neuroscience community. The eighty-one exquisite hand-embroidered panels of Cajal's drawings were displayed at the virtual FENS (Federation of European Neuroscience Societies) Forum in 2020, and featured on the front cover of The Lancet Neurology in September 2021.
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