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It is 100 years since Cajal shared, with Golgi, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Despite the recognition Cajal received for his pioneering studies on the functional organization of the CNS, his fundamental observations on plasticity are less well-known.
Although the identification of the neuron revolutionized scientific understanding of the brain, neuronal imagery has not gained broad appeal. Wingate and Kwint discuss how developments in neuronal imaging and a shifting artistic climate have changed the way in which the neuron is used in visual culture.