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Credit: St. Croix Sensory, Inc.

By Erin Alessandroni and Janissa Delzo

“I’m going to hand you one of these sticks,” Allison Weiss, a research coordinator at the Penn Memory Center (PMC), told a patient. “What does it smell like: lemon, blueberry, mango, or orange*?”

“It’s hard to tell,” the 82-year-old man with mild cognitive impairment replied.

After wafting the stick back and forth under his nose for about 10 seconds, he answered with uncertainty: “smells like a little orange.”

He went on to sniff 15 more sticks, “getting almost none of the smells right,” Weiss said.

To those with an unimpaired sense of smell, distinguishing among the aforementioned artificial odors is likely an easy task. But for individuals with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, impaired olfactory function is common.

Dr. Shana Stites, far right, at the “Stigma in Dementia: It’s Time to Talk About It” Symposium at the national Gerontological Society of America (GSA) meeting last week.

By Joyce Lee

The more people know about how to care for a person with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia, the less likely they are to expect others to react negatively to that person.

That is one finding from the latest study by Penn Memory Center (PMC) Scholar Shana Stites, PsyD, MA, MS, who suggests that teaching caregiving skills could reduce public stigma of AD dementia and help caregivers.

November Memory Café
Featuring: Dance Class led by R. Colby Damon
Friday, November 30
10:30 a.m. to Noon
Christ Church Neighborhood House
20 N. American Street, Philadelphia

December Memory Café
Featuring: Curtis Institute of Music
Friday, December 7
10:30 a.m. to Noon
Christ Church Neighborhood House
20 N. American Street, Philadelphia

RSVP: alison.lynn@uphs.upenn.edu

Join us for our free monthly Memory Cafés this November and December.

November Memory Café will feature Robert Colby Damon, a professional dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher who has worked with such companies as BalletX, The Metropolitan Opera, and Pennsylvania Ballet. He will be synthesizing his broad experiences as a dancer and dance teacher working with various populations to lead a short dance class tailored specifically to the unique challenges of those living with Alzheimer’s disease. The class will be centered on easy, adaptive, and fun movements for patients and caregivers alike. All ages and skill levels are welcome, no former dance experience is necessary.

At December Memory Café, Curtis Institute of Music students will perform classical music and create a relaxing environment for attendees. The Curtis Institute is a conservatory in Center City, Philadelphia, where talented students from all around the world gather to study and become leaders in the field of music. PMC and Curtis have partnered in the past to bring to our patients and research participants classical music in their homes and at Memory Cafés.

Events will be held at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American Street, Philadelphia, PA.To RSVP, contact Alison Lynn at 215-360-0257 or alison.lynn@uphs.upenn.edu.

By Joyce Lee

On average, some amount of decline in memory and thinking skills is expected with age. But every older adult experiences cognitive aging and decline differently. Some develop neurodegenerative disease that hastens cognitive decline, while others preserve cognitive skills into their later years.

Making changes to reduce the risk factors in your life, such as diet, physical exercise, social activity, and cognitive engagement, is key to staying on the path of steady cognitive skills with advancing age.

This is what Dawn Mechanic-Hamilton, PhD, ABPP/CN, addressed in her talk on healthy brain aging to a group of older, professional women in the Ralston Center in late October. Dr. Mechanic-Hamilton is the Penn Memory Center director of neuropsychological services and cognitive fitness programs.

Penn Memory Center Scholar Laura Wisse, PhD, was selected to present the 2018 Sanjeev Kumar Memorial Lecture at the annual Biomedical Postdoctoral Council Symposium on Monday, November 5.

In her lecture, which followed a series of presentations related to biomedical research, Dr. Wisse discussed her work on the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and aging on the hippocampus using a newly developed postmortem atlas. Dr. Wisse draws aspects of her data from the PMC Aging Brain Cohort (ABC) study.

At PMC, Dr. Wisse works with PMC Co-Director David Wolk, MD, associate professor of neurology, and Paul Yushkevich, PhD, associate professor of radiology in the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Wisse’s main interests are imaging of the medial temporal lobe in aging and diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Major Depressive Disorder. She is also a member of the Penn Image Computing and Science Lab.

By Janissa Delzo

A collaborative report issued by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) details a national strategy to both boost recruitment in Alzheimer’s disease research and increase diversity among those eligible research participants.

PMC Co-Director Jason Karlawish, MD, contributed to the October report titled, “Together We Make the Difference: National Strategy for Recruitment and Participation in Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias Clinical Research,” which reflects two years of work.

“This document focuses on one area of urgency—the pressing need for increased and diverse participation in research studies as these scientific opportunities emerge,” wrote NIA Director Richard J. Hodes, MD. “Additional studies on new approaches will require greater numbers of people from across the disease spectrum.”