Three-dimensional reconstruction and quantitative study of a pyramidal cell of a Cajal histological preparation

The year 2006 marks the centenary of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine awarded to Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Camilo Golgi. We commemorate this centenary with a three-dimensional reconstruction and a quantitative study of a pyramidal cell of a Cajal's histological preparation. This preparation is one of the 4529 histological preparations personally made by Ramón y Cajal and preserved in the Museum Cajal. The three-dimensional reconstruction of the neuron allows visualizing one important discovery of Ramón y Cajal that constitutes an active field of research in present-day neuroscience: dendritic spines.