Carl Wilhelm Sem-Jacobsen: Aerospace Neurophysiology and Deep Brain Stimulation Pioneer.

The Norwegian physician Carl Wilhelm Sem-Jacobsen (1912-1991) was a pioneer in deep brain stimulation and aerospace neurophysiology, but for several reasons his story has remained untold. During WW2 he collaborated with a renowned military underground resistance group against the Nazi occupants, then had to flee to neutral Sweden. He returned to participate in the liberation of Northern Norway as a Captain in the US Special Forces also working with the OSS (Office of Strategic Services - precursor for CIA) and received a citation from General Eisenhower for his contributions. Sem-Jacobsen then spent several years in the USA training in psychiatry and clinical neurophysiology at the Mayo Clinic. He constructed his own medical technical devices, was among the first to develop deep brain stimulation, and made the smallest EEG- and EKG recording systems yet produced, also used by the American astronauts walking on the Moon. But he was more an inventor than a researcher and few of his observations were published in peer-review medical journals. He built his own neurophysiological institute for neurosurgery, deep brain recordings and deep brain stimulation in Oslo's main psychiatric hospital, but was sponsored by US military forces and NASA. He knew CIA Director William E. Colby personally, and rumours soon flourished that Sem-Jacobsen conducted secret mind-control experiments for American authorities and the CIA. These accusations were investigated, and long after his death he was officially absolved by a Hearing Committee appointed by the Norwegian Government. Nevertheless all his personal files were burnt by his family who was still harassed by investigative journalists. Sem-Jacobsen also documented some of his work on film, but the whereabouts of these films have remained unknown. I searched for them for several years and recently discovered numerous films and photos in an old barn in rural Norway. These films and photos document in-action neurophysiology recordings in divers, pilots, and astronauts, and they show how Sem-Jacobsen in collaboration with experienced neurosurgeons in Oslo conducted the very first trials with deep brain stimulation in patients with Parkinson's Disease. He apparently even tried subthalamic stimulation as early as in the 1950s.