February 2021
Celebrating an Important Partnership During Black History Month
For 26 years now, the Mesulam Center and the Francis J. Atlas Center, a regional senior center located in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago and serving a largely Black and African American population, have had a long and successful partnership. In fact, the Atlas Center has been a champion and collaborator of the Mesulam Center since its inception in 1994. The two organizations have worked together to provide educational experiences about dementia, brain-aging, and a healthy memory for a community that is at double the risk of dementia than white persons.
The Atlas Center is a part of a network of 21 senior centers throughout the city that serve 60+ year old Chicagoans. Their primary goal is to connect older adults to vital community services that can help them stay healthy and independent. Some classes the Atlas Center offers are computer classes, fitness, arts and crafts, medical counseling, and assistance in receiving senior benefits.
“Our seniors are very much into maintaining their memory as much as possible, because a lot of them have noticed changes,” Robin Tillotson, the regional director of the Atlas Center, said. “So, the Mesulam Center has been really good about educating our seniors about brain health and the research at the center.”
During the pandemic, the Atlas Center’s offerings have gone online. On February 11, the center hosted “Brain Health Basics” via Zoom during which Maureen Daly, PhD, discussed maintaining brain health. More than 70 attendees joined from across the city.
Online Extras
Meet Miriam
For the Kalichmans, participating in research at the Mesulam Center is a family affair. Miriam Kalichman shares her committment to research after both her parents passed.
Event: Brain Health Basics
This month we hosted Brain Health Basics with the Atlas Center to discuss wellness strategies for healthy aging.Upcoming PPA Conference
On Friday, March 26, we are hosting our PPA Conference online for persons living with primary progressive aphasia, their families, and professionals.Online Version
View the full email newsletter here.Meet Miriam: Research Runs in the Family
By Chloe Hilles
It is no wonder why Miriam Kalichman is a current research participant at the Mesulam Center, it’s basically in her DNA. Both of Miriam’s parents participated in the SuperAging study, which is part of the Clinical Core study at Northwestern’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and funded by the National Institute on Aging.
Through the example of her parents, Miriam witnessed first-hand the importance of being a research participant. Miriam now participates as a cognitively healthy volunteer in Clinical Core study, and she also enrolled into the Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) study as a cognitively healthy volunteer.
“Research participants are important because the Center needs data. If you don’t have any people to [participate], then you don’t have any research that can be used to help other people,” Miriam said.
In the early 2000s, Miriam's parents heard about the SuperAging study, which follows people 80 years and older who have the memory capacity of 50-year-olds longitudinally. The couple was fascinated by the research project and decided to enroll as participants for the study. Miriam enjoyed learning about their visits and assessments at the Mesulam Center. After Miriam's mother died, Miriam became her father's study partner, which inspired her to participate in research years later.
Miriam Kalichman and her family. From left to right, top row: Miriam, her husband, and her son. Bottom row: Miriam’s father, daughter, and mother.
Another important family tradition is brain donation. When Miriam's parents were in Mesulam Center research studies, her mother had been adamant about donating her brain when she died. After witnessing the selflessness of his wife, her father agreed to donate his brain as well. Even in the last days of her life, Miriam's mother was passionate about making sure her brain ended up in the right place.
"When my mother was in the hospital, she was very clear: "Remember you have to call the Mesulam Center after I die; she would say to me," Miriam said.
Brain donation is a crucial part of the research process. Dementia syndromes can be diagnosed clinically while a person is alive, but the ability to perform a brain autopsy after death allows scientists to see the underlying biological cause(s) of disease in the brain. Since the clinical syndrome can differ from what is seen in the brain after death, following a person through life and looking at their brain after death is invaluable to understanding the complexity of dementia.
For Miriam and her family, brain donation was critical to learning more about her father's brain health. At age 91, he was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment; however, in a brain autopsy after death Miriam was able to learn that he had the pathology of Alzheimer's disease.
"In a personal sense, brain autopsy was my last bit of curiosity about my parents. I want to know what disease pathology was really there," Miriam said.
When cognitively healthy people like Miriam donate their brains, they equip researchers to compare biological changes in their brains over time to those found in the brains of people who lived with dementia. By examining brains with and without Alzheimer's and other dementias, clinicians and scientists gain a better understanding of the diseases, what areas of the brain diseases attack, and make progress toward finding treatments and cures.
For 25 years now, Miriam has been carrying around a card in her wallet that explains to call the Mesulam Center to ensure a brain donation when she dies. Miriam said she never travels without this card.
"Participating in the study has made it easier to talk to my kids about what's going to happen and what sort of arrangements to make for aging," Miriam said. "It keeps people honest with their kids, honest with their partners, honest with their families."