Josephine Semmes

Biographical Timeline

• Born November 2, 1916 Hazlehurst, Mississippi, as Josephine Burnley Semmes
• 1940s – Worked with Warren McCulloch (1898–1969) and Walter Pitts (1923–1969) in Chicago
• 1945 – Married Robert Allen Blum (1921–1949), published as Josephine Semmes Blum
• 1949 – Awarded PhD from Yale University. Thesis titled Cortical Organization in Somesthesis.
• 1951 – Co-authored early work on cortical organisation and sensory processing.
• 1952 – Awarded a medical research fellowship, by the National Institute of Mental Health, to study somatosensory capacity in war veterans with penetrating head wounds.
• 1950 – Married neuroscientist Edward Vaughan Evarts (1926–1985). Published as Josephine Semmes and Josephine Semmes Evarts
• Early 1950s – Joined the neuropsychology research group of Hans-Lukas Teuber (1916–1977) at New York University. With Sidney Weinstein (1922–2010), Lila Ghent, and Teuber, she studied somatosensory deficits after penetrating brain injury.
• 1952 – With Weinstein, developed the tactile sensitivity method first called the “pressure test” and the Semmes–Weinstein Pressure Aesthesiometer or Semmes–Weinstein monofilaments. Weinstein completed his dissertation the same year.
• 1960 – Published Somatosensory Changes After Penetrating Brain Wounds in Man, analysing sensory impairment after wartime brain injury and providing early human thresholds for the monofilament pressure test.
• Early 1960s – Joined the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, working in the Laboratory of Neuropsychology on cortical function in monkeys.
• 1963 – Published Correlates of impaired orientation in personal and extrapersonal space on lesion localisation, body schema, and spatial orientation.
• 1965–1968 – Published work on astereognosis and non-tactual factors in object recognition after brain injury.
• 1968 – Published Hemispheric specialization: A possible clue to mechanism proposing a model of functional differences between the cerebral hemispheres based partly on somatosensory evidence.
• 1971 – With Ruthmary K. Deuel and Mortimer Mishkin, published Interaction between the hemispheres in unimanual somesthetic learning.
• Mid-1970s – Left the NIH Laboratory of Neuropsychology research section for an extramural research role.
• Died January 12, 1998 in New York as Josephine Semmes Evarts, aged 81.

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Medical Eponyms

Semmes–Weinstein monofilament examination

The Semmes–Weinstein monofilament examination is a quantitative test of cutaneous pressure threshold using calibrated nylon filaments. It was developed by Semmes and Sidney Weinstein (1922–2010) in the neuropsychology research department of Hans-Lukas Teuber (1916–1977).

Originally called the pressure test, the method replaced earlier von Frey horsehair testing with calibrated nylon microfilaments. Semmes and Weinstein used a chemical balance to calibrate the filaments and created what became known as the Semmes–Weinstein Pressure Aesthesiometer. The first device was reportedly housed in a small “El Paso Cigars” box.

The technique was first developed for detailed somatosensory research in brain-injured patients, but later became widely used in clinical assessment of peripheral nerve function. The test is commonly used in Hansen disease, diabetic neuropathy, and entrapment neuropathies.

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Major Publications

• Ghent L, Weinstein S, Semmes J, Teuber HL. Effect of unilateral brain injury in man on learning of a tactual discrimination. J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1955 Dec;48(6):478-81.
• Semmes J, Chow KL. Motor effects of lesions of precentral gyrus and of lesions sparing this area in monkey. AMA Arch Neurol Psychiatry. 1955 May;73(5):546-56.
• Semmes J, Weinstein S, Ghent L, Teuber HL. Somatosensory Changes After Penetrating Brain Wounds in Man. 1960
• Semmes J, Weinstein S, Ghent L, Teuber HL. Correlates of impaired orientation in personal and extrapersonal space. Brain. 1963 Dec;86:747-72. 
• Semmes J, Mishkin M. Somatosensory loss in monkeys after ipsilateral cortical ablation. J Neurophysiol. 1965 May;28:473-86.
• Semmes J. A non-tactual factor in astereognosis. Neuropsychologia 1965; 3(4): 295-315
• Semmes J. Hemispheric specialization: A possible clue to mechanism. Neuropsychologia 1968; 6(1): 11-26
• Deuel RK, Mishkin M, Semmes J. Interaction between the hemispheres in unimanual somesthetic learning. Exp Neurol. 1971 Jan;30(1):123-38. 
• Semmes J, Porter L, Randolph MC. Further studies of anterior postcentral lesions in monkeys. Cortex. 1974 Mar;10(1):55-68. 
• Semmes J, Turner B. Effects of cortical lesions on somatosensory tasks. J Invest Dermatol. 1977 Jul;69(1):181-9.

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References

Eponymous terms

• Bell-Krotoski J, Tomancik E. The repeatability of testing with Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments. J Hand Surg Am. 1987 Jan;12(1):155-61.
• Weinstein S. Fifty years of somatosensory research: from the Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments to the Weinstein Enhanced Sensory Test. J Hand Ther. 1993 Jan-Mar;6(1):11-22; discussion 50.
• Meirte J, Moortgat P, Truijen S, et al. Interrater and intrarater reliability of the Semmes Weinstein aesthesiometer to assess touch pressure threshold in burn scars. Burns. 2015;41(6):1261-1267.