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WHAT WAS THE ORIGIN OF THE SEMMES-WEINSTEIN MONOFILAMENTS?
Many have asked about the origins of the Semmes-Weinstein Monofilaments. Today what is published in the literature is not always accurate. We owe the modern Nylon threshold test to the vision and foresight of Sidney Weinstein, a neuropsychologist who was one of the first, if not the first, of the neuropsychologists. For many years in the 1950's Dr. Weinstein worked at Albert Einstein University Hospital in New York collaborating with Dr. Josephine Semmes, a neurophysiologist at the National Institutes of Health. They used the monofilaments to map cortical areas of the brain in monkeys. The initial publication of normative thresholds in human subjects is found in the now classic book, Somatosensory changes after penetrating brain wounds in man [1]. In a personal communication, Dr. Weinstein has explained that his father was interested in materials. The son shared his interests in the discovery of new materials. When DuPoint first invented -Nylon" it was a fascinating, unexplored substance. Sidney Weinstein recognized its viscoelastic properties as a superior replacement for the progressively sized diameter horsehairs he had been using in sensory threshold testing. Nylon has little humidity absorption, and hair has a lot, a criticism of the horsehair test first described by von Frey. In the 1980's, Sidney Weinstein replaced horsehairs in the von Frey test with Nylon in available diameter sizes, and the test was born. He did not seek to patent his original handle design. He recognized the value of the progressively increasing threshold test in determining normal and abnormal sensory thresholds, and wanted this to be shared. Many scholars were interested in sensory testing during this period. Careful examiners from many fields were attempting to gain a better understanding of human sensory physiology. As a point of interest he says he kept the first kits he constructed in a cigar box!
IF SIDNEY WEINSTEIN DEVELOPED THE TEST, WHY WAS IT CALLED THE SEMMES-WEINSTEIN MONOFILAMENT TEST?
Josephine Semmes was a well-known neurophysiologist working at the National Institutes of Health when the monofilament thresholds were first used in landmark studies, and published in the book, -Somatosensory Changes After Penetrating Brain Wounds In Man" (long out of print but available through the Library of Congress). They did a lot...