Walking to Remember

The trio laughed and playfully bickered like the old friends they are, 缅怀那些在历史上塑造了俄勒冈州非裔美国人社区中心的人和地方. The area has changed substantially, 但他们仍然对这个地方有一种亲和力，在那里他们能感受到家的吸引力.

“It was our neighborhood,” Clay says, “my kids’ neighborhood.”

Today, the neighborhood has changed, as have Clay, Naylor and Maxey. Now in their late 60s and 70s, the three women regularly walk the neighborhood to reminisce and exercise. 他们是一组21名参与者的一部分，他们参加了俄勒冈健康中心的一项独特的临床试验 & 科学 University’s Layton Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease Center. 这项研究, 通过积极回忆和照片图像分享历史(SHARP), is led by Raina Croff’99, assistant professor of neurology in the OHSU 学校 of Medicine.

左起:Vickie Naylor, Bernadine Clay和Donna Maxey在分手时回顾他们的步行路线icipate in the SHARP study in Portland, 矿石. The goal of the study, led by Raina Croff’99, 是为了找出运动与主动回忆相结合是否能抑制老年人的记忆丧失. 该项目还捕捉了历史上在这里繁荣的黑人社区的记忆.
Credit: OHSU/Kristyna Wentz-Graff

该项目的目的是维持或改善55岁及以上非裔美国人的认知健康, 这个群体患阿尔茨海默氏症或其他痴呆症的可能性是老年白人的两倍. From an academic research perspective, 该项目将体育活动与社会参与和会话回忆相结合.

But Naylor sums it up her own way. “It’s just good to get out and walk,她说。.

参与者每人至少在波特兰北部或东北部生活了10年. Divided into groups of three, they get out three times a week over six months, walking 72 pre-designed one-mile routes through the area. As they walk each route, 智能平板电脑会提示参与者有关记忆标记——新闻剪报的问题, 照片, advertisements, 或者像政治竞选按钮这样的人工制品——与路线上的特定位置绑定, such as the site of a school, 一个教堂, or a civil rights march.

“I was looking at culture as a primary driver of health,” says Croff, who double-majored in anthropology and classical civilization at 贝洛伊特. “我感兴趣的是让人们在物理空间中行走，彼此谈论他们的记忆，而不是坐在房间里被问到.”

The goal is to test whether physical exercise, combined with active reminiscence, can forestall memory loss. 这项研究, 该研究由阿尔茨海默氏症协会和国家老龄化研究所资助, 包括认知健康的人和经历记忆丧失或轻度认知障碍的人, as measured through a baseline assessment. At the end of six months, 研究人员随后将进行一项测试，以确定该计划是否改善或维持了参与者的认知健康. Croff developed the walking program in a pilot project supported by the U.S. 疾病控制和预防中心，早期迹象显示有希望.

但对克罗夫来说，这个项目不仅仅是关于大脑健康背后的科学. 它是关于创造一个数字和实体的历史，与子孙后代分享. Croff grew up in Portland, 花一些时间在这个项目关注的历史上的黑人社区. 当她的父母离婚时，她说她好像生活在两个不同的世界里. 她的父亲, who is black, 会带克罗夫和她哥哥去一个非裔美国人占多数的教堂吗. 事实上, it was at that church that one of the SHARP participants, Shirley Minor, first met Croff “when she was knee-high.” Croff’s mother, on the other hand, was white. 当克罗夫和她哥哥和妈妈一起住在白人聚居区的时候, they were often the only African-Americans around.

“就好像我一直都很神秘，因为我是混血儿，我的头发也有点不同,” Croff says. “这是孩子们无论如何都要处理的事情，然后它在上面增加了额外的一层. Sometimes it made me feel special, and sometimes it made me feel different in a way that I didn’t like.”

蕾娜·克罗夫是俄勒冈健康中心的神经学助理教授 & 理科大学将她对非裔美国人历史的兴趣与医学人类学结合起来. 她站在一幅壁画前，上面画着科蕾塔·斯科特·金和俄勒冈州黑人联合基金会其他黑人女性领导人的肖像, located in one of the neighborhoods where the SHARP study takes place.
Credit: Steve Hambuchen/Mural by Eat Cho and Jeremy Nichols

该项目的目的是维持或改善55岁及以上非裔美国人的认知健康, 这个群体患阿尔茨海默氏症或其他痴呆症的可能性是老年白人的两倍. From an academic research perspective, 该项目将体育活动与社会参与和会话回忆相结合.

But Naylor sums it up her own way. “It’s just good to get out and walk,她说。.

参与者每人至少在波特兰北部或东北部生活了10年. Divided into groups of three, they get out three times a week over six months, walking 72 pre-designed one-mile routes through the area. As they walk each route, 智能平板电脑会提示参与者有关记忆标记——新闻剪报的问题, 照片, advertisements, 或者像政治竞选按钮这样的人工制品——与路线上的特定位置绑定, such as the site of a school, 一个教堂, or a civil rights march.

“I was looking at culture as a primary driver of health,” says Croff, who double-majored in anthropology and classical civilization at 贝洛伊特. “我感兴趣的是让人们在物理空间中行走，彼此谈论他们的记忆，而不是坐在房间里被问到.”

The goal is to test whether physical exercise, combined with active reminiscence, can forestall memory loss. 这项研究, 该研究由阿尔茨海默氏症协会和国家老龄化研究所资助, 包括认知健康的人和经历记忆丧失或轻度认知障碍的人, as measured through a baseline assessment. At the end of six months, 研究人员随后将进行一项测试，以确定该计划是否改善或维持了参与者的认知健康. Croff developed the walking program in a pilot project supported by the U.S. 疾病控制和预防中心，早期迹象显示有希望.

但对克罗夫来说，这个项目不仅仅是关于大脑健康背后的科学. 它是关于创造一个数字和实体的历史，与子孙后代分享. Croff grew up in Portland, 花一些时间在这个项目关注的历史上的黑人社区. 当她的父母离婚时，她说她好像生活在两个不同的世界里. 她的父亲, who is black, 会带克罗夫和她哥哥去一个非裔美国人占多数的教堂吗. 事实上, it was at that church that one of the SHARP participants, Shirley Minor, first met Croff “when she was knee-high.” Croff’s mother, on the other hand, was white. 当克罗夫和她哥哥和妈妈一起住在白人聚居区的时候, they were often the only African-Americans around.

“就好像我一直都很神秘，因为我是混血儿，我的头发也有点不同,” Croff says. “这是孩子们无论如何都要处理的事情，然后它在上面增加了额外的一层. Sometimes it made me feel special, and sometimes it made me feel different in a way that I didn’t like.”

From left: Shirley Minor, Raina Croff’99, Deloris Griggs, and Cecil Prescod on a recent walk in Portland. “We buy houses,” the sign on the telephone pole behind them, points to the neighborhood's rampant gentrification. “They're walking through what is, and talking about what was,” says Croff.
Credit: Steve Hambuchen

马克西记得有一个社区里住着几代非洲裔美国人, along with their white neighbors, took pride in keeping up their homes, 码, and businesses. Today, northeast Portland abounds with signs of change. 最近在马丁·路德·金附近散步时. 学校, the three women passed remodeled houses, one electric car after another, and a sign posted on a fence labeled “pesticide free zone.” At one point, 妇女们斜眼看着一个留着胡子的赤脚慢跑者穿过社区.

Yet something is also missing.

马克西痛苦地回忆起她的家人失去童年时的教堂时所遭受的破坏. It once stood on the current site of Veterans Memorial Coliseum. 她的家和她父亲的理发店位于5号州际公路穿过该地区的地方. Many of the longtime families have scattered. 克莱感叹说，有时当她走进最新的时尚餐厅, the voices become hushed—as if she’s the outsider.

“有些人在这个社区住了10年或15年，他们不知道这里曾经有一个繁荣的黑人社区,” Maxey says.

Croff reflects that if she wasn’t doing what she’s doing now, she would be a writer of some sort, and in many ways she already is. Not only is she working on a book of her own, she’s telling the stories of so many in Portland through SHARP. While the scientific data the study is collecting is valuable, 克罗夫认为，保存和分享参与者的记忆同样有价值，这样后代就能记住, like her two young sons, 会知道他们成长的城市里繁荣的黑人社区吗. 克罗夫希望这一努力能在未来适用于其他社区.

“即使是没有经历中产阶级化的城市，也会看到保护历史的价值，因为世代在变化，生活方式也在不断变化,她说。. “It’s not just doing the science. 如果没有在文化框架内与人们建立联系的能力——我在贝洛特学会了如何做到这一点——科学就不会起作用.”

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Erik Robinson is a senior media relations specialist for 俄勒冈州 Health & 科学 University. Brianna Wellen is a freelance journalist based in northern Illinois.