Herbert Jasper in Paris and the Origin of Electromyography

Abstract

Herbert Henry Jasper was arguably the 20th century's most influential clinical and research electrophysiologist. He initially sought an understanding of the function of the brain through philosophy and psychology as a graduate student, but a chance encounter led to his training in electrophysiology with Louis Lapicque and Alexandre Monnier at La Sorbonne in Paris from 1931 to 1933. There Jasper studied the electrophysiology of the neuromuscular unit in crustaceans, amphibians, and mammals, in the hope of gaining insight into the influence of the cortex and spinal cord on motility. Jasper joined the Department of Psychology at Brown University on his return from Paris, with the intention of pursuing his studies in neuromuscular physiology, but his interest veered to electroencephalography in 1934, when he became aware of Hans Berger's work on electroencephalography. Jasper was recruited to the Montreal Neurologic Institute (MNI) as its electroencephalographer in 1938. As Canada entered the Second World War in 1939, the Canadian Army required an accurate, reliable, and portable apparatus to localize the site of peripheral nerve injuries, to assess their severity, and to guide their intraoperative treatment. Jasper, using his expertise in neuromuscular electrophysiology and André Cipriani, the MNI's electrical engineer, set themselves to the task, and together they built the first clinical electromyograph. The quality of Jasper's electromyographic recordings attracted the attention of James Golseth, a neurologist working with the US Army on peripheral nerve injuries. Golseth tested Jasper and Cipriani's machine on American casualties, and the US Army quickly adopted it for its own use. Following the cessation of hostilities, Jasper, Golseth, and James Fissell, an electrical engineer, developed the first commercial electromyograph based on Cipriani's circuitry. The commercial availability of electromyographs and their widespread use led to the creation of the American Association of Electromyography and Electrodiagnosis in 1953, with James Golseth as its first president. Jasper returned to electroencephalography after the war, but the MNI maintained an active division of electromyography under his direction where the likes of Milton Shy, who with Glen Drager described multiple system atrophy, and the Nobelist David Hubel trained in electrophysiology.