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Draft:Josephine Semmes

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Aurodea108 (talk | contribs) at 01:11, 13 August 2024 (→Personal Life: Noted nickname "Jojie".). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

  • Comment: Findagrave is not a reliable source because it is user edited. Theroadislong (talk) 17:36, 3 August 2024 (UTC)

Josephine Semmes (1916-1998)[1] was an American neuropsychologist. Semmes researched how touch and spatial orientation are processed in the brain and developed a pioneering hypothesis about differences between the right and left hemispheres. In the course of her neuropsychological research, she co-developed a tactile sensitivity test, the Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test, that later was widely used by clinicians for tracking the course of diseases including leprosy[2] and diabetic neuropathy[3].

Career

Semmes worked in the lab of Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts in Chicago.[4]. She received her Ph.D from Yale.[5] Semmes also worked with Karl Lashley at the Yerkes Laboratory of Primate Biology in Orange Park, Florida.[4] She was among the various postdocs and graduate students who participated with Lashley and Karl Pribram in coming up with the name "neuropsychology" for their field of research: using behavioral techniques to investigate the organization of brain processes.[6] Along with Robert A. Blum, Semmes carried out research with Pribram functionally characterizing the frontal lobes of chimpanzees, which they presented to a meeting of the American Psychological Association.[6] Semmes also studied at Queen Square, London.[7]

Semmes received a fellowship in psychology at New York University,[8] where she joined the research group of Hans-Lukas Teuber.[4] She continued working with him after he moved to Bellevue Medical Center in Boston.

While Semmes was working at Bellevue Hospital, Sidney Weinstein, who was also working there on his doctoral research in neuroscience under Teuber[4], persuaded her that a two-point device for detecting touch sensitivity, which she had brought to the lab, could be improved.[7] Together they carried out the long, involved procedure of calibrating nylon microfilaments using a chemical balance.[7]. They used these microfilaments to create a new tactile sensitivity test they called "the pressure test".[7]. The new testing device they made was a particular type of esthesiometer (a device for measuring tactile sensitivity), later known as the Semmes-Weinstein Aesthesiometer, which used these calibrated monofilaments. Weinstein completed his dissertation in 1952.[9] These Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments came into wide use for various applications.[10] In May 1992, Weinstein traveled to Carville, Louisiana, to the Laboratory Research Branch of the Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Center, to reminisce about the history of this invention. He received a plaque from the leprosy researchers there commemorating the "gift to the world" of the Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments.[7]

Semmes was the first author of a monograph, Somatosensory Changes After Penetrating Brain Wounds in Man, published by Teuber's group in 1960. It had previously been known that some lesions to the right hemisphere of the brain could cause changes in tactile sensitivity of the left hand, and vice versa. The authors had mapped the correspondence between exactly where in the brain the lesion occurred, and exactly where on the contralateral hand the change in sensitivity occurred. This mapping would indicate how an area of the hand was represented by a corresponding area of the brain responsible for processing touch sensation. The researchers had found that the touch processing region of the brain differed in each hemisphere, and the pattern of loss also differed on the two sides of the body. They concluded that the representation of the right hand in the left hemisphere was more "concentrated" than the representation of the left hand in the right hemisphere.[11]

Semmes was also the first author on papers from the Teuber lab investigating spatial orientation.[12] They found differences in the regions of the brain involved in orienting personal space (i.e., one's own body) versus extra-personal space.[13]

After leaving Bellevue Hospital, Semmes went to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland to study cortical functioning in monkeys.[7] She developed a pioneering hypothesis about hemispheric lateralization that influenced many later theoretical efforts.[14]

TODO: Expand the summary of the Tucker passage.

TODO: Create a list of Semmes's selected works. Include Somatosensory Changes After Penetrating Brain Wounds in Man. Include the hemispheric lateralization paper.

TODO: Expand history of Semmes's work at the NIH based on Mortimer Mishkin and Virgil Carlson oral histories. She went to the NIH in the early 1960's.

Personal Life

While Walter Pitts was a student at the University of Chicago from 1938 to 1943, Semmes (who had been divorced) was one of his closest personal friends.[15] In 1945, Pitts considered proposing marriage to Semmes, and discussed the idea with his friend and colleague Warren McCulloch. However, Pitts abandoned the idea, and it is not clear whether he had ever directly communicated this type of interest to Semmes.[15]

Semmes's friends called her "Jojie".[5]

At some point Semmes was married to neuropsychologist Robert A. Blum.[6] Subsequently, Semmes married the neuroscientist Edward Evarts.[8]

References

  1. ^ Acorn, Mary. "Mary Porter Evarts". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  2. ^ Breger, Donna (October–December 1987). "Correlating Semmes-Weinstein monofilament mappings with sensory nerve conduction parameters in Hansen's disease patients: An update". Journal of Hand Therapy. 1 (1): 33–37. doi:10.1016/S0894-1130(87)80010-8. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  3. ^ Feng, Yuzhe; Schlösser, Felix J.; Sumpio, Bauer E. (September 2009). "The Semmes Weinstein monofilament examination as a screening tool for diabetic peripheral neuropathy". Journal of Vascular Surgery. 50 (3): 675–682.e1. doi:10.1016/j.jvs.2009.05.017. PMID 19595541. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d Parlee, Mary Brown (2012). "Hans-Lukas Teuber: Envisioning Neuropsychology". In Stringer, Anthony Y.; Cooley, Eileen L.; Christensen, Anne-Lise (eds.). Pathways to Prominence in Neuropsychology: Reflections of Twentieth-Century Pioneers. New York: Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 84–85.
  5. ^ a b Weinstein, Sidney (1985). "The Influence of Hans-Lukas Teuber and the Psychophysiological Laboratory on the Establishment and Development of Neuropsychology". International Journal of Neuroscience. 25 (3–4): 279–280. doi:10.3109/00207458508985381. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  6. ^ a b c Pribram, Karl H. (2012). "Autobiography in Anecdote: The Foundations of Experimental Neuropsychology". In Stringer, Anthony Y.; Cooley, Eileen L.; Christensen, Anne-Lise (eds.). Pathways to Prominence in Neuropsychology: Reflections of Twentieth-Century Pioneers. New York: Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 199, 209.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Weinstein, Sidney (January–March 1993). "Fifty Years of Somatosensory Research: From the Semmes-Weinstein Monofilaments to the Weinstein Enhanced Sensory Test". Journal of Hand Therapy. 6 (1): 11–22. doi:10.1016/S0894-1130(12)80176-1. PMID 8343870. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  8. ^ a b Ferreras, Ingrid (January 18, 2002). "Dr. Robert A. Cohen Oral History 2002 A". NIH Oral Histories. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  9. ^ Weinstein, Sidney (1952). Time-Error in Somesthesis After Injury to the Nervous System. Retrieved 12 August 2024 – via ProQuest.
  10. ^ Bell-Krotoski, Judith A.; Fess, Elaine Ewing; Figarola, John H.; Hiltz, Danell (April–June 1995). "Threshold Detection and Semmes-Weinstein Monofilaments". Journal of Hand Therapy. 8 (2): 155–162. doi:10.1016/S0894-1130(12)80314-0. PMID 7550627. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  11. ^ Zangwill, O. L. (September 1961). "Book Review: Somatosensory Changes After Penetrating Brain Wounds in Man/Visual Field Defects After Penetrating Missile Wounds of the Brain". Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 13 (3): 191. doi:10.1080/17470216108416492h (inactive 2024-08-12).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2024 (link)
  12. ^ Benton, Arthur (March 1994). "Four neuropsychologists". Neuropsychology Review. 4 (1): 38, 44. doi:10.1007/BF01875020. PMID 8186790.
  13. ^ Teuber, Hans-Lukas (2009). "The Riddle of Frontal Lobe Function in Man". Neuropsychology Review. 19: 37–38. doi:10.1007/s11065-009-9088-z. PMID 19459235.
  14. ^ Tucker, Don M. (June 25, 2007). Mind From Body: Experience From Neural Structure. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 50–52.
  15. ^ a b Smalheiser, Neil R. (Winter 2000). "Walter Pitts". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 43 (2): 218, 221. doi:10.1353/pbm.2000.0009. PMID 10804586.


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