Pareidolia in Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple System Atrophy

Table 2

Demographic and clinical profiles of patients with PD with and without pareidolia.

Group	Pareidolia (+)	Pareidolia (−)	value
Total no.	19	21
Sex (male/female)^a	11/8	12/9	0.962
Age at the pareidolia test, y, median (range)^b	71 (47–79)	69 (50–82)	0.915
Disease duration, y, median (range)^b	8.1 (0.8–16.8)	6.0 (0.6–26.3)	0.748
ACE-III total score, median (range)^b	91 (63–99)	91 (76–100)	0.688
Attention/orientation, median (range)^b	18 (11–18)	17 (14–18)	0.649
Memory, median (range)^b	23 (13–25)	23 (9–26)	0.436
Fluency (mean ± SD)^c	9.6 ± 2.4	9.9 ± 2.0	0.641
Language, median (range)^b	26 (20–26)	26 (21–26)	0.520
Visuospatial, median (range)^b	15 (8–16)	15 (9–16)	0.520
FAB, median (mean ± SD)^d	14.4 ± 2.8	15.0 ± 1.8	0.448
Pareidolia test
Pareidolia, median (range)^b	3 (1–17)	0	<0.001
Missed, median (range)^b	0 (0-1)	0 (0-1)	0.236
STAI
State anxiety (mean ± SD)^c	48.4 ± 10.5	42.5 ± 7.3	0.044
Trait anxiety (mean ± SD)^c	48.8 ± 10.9	42.1 ± 9.5	0.044
Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, median (range)^b	5 (1–36)	4 (0–9)	0.093
MFES (mean ± SD)^c	92.5 ± 38.3	107.8 ± 28.7	0.159
Freezing of gait (mean ± SD)^c	10.5 ± 6.9	8.8 ± 5.8	0.398
RBDSQ-J, median (range)^b	4 (1–11)	5 (0–10)	0.486
Hoehn and Yahr scale, median (range)^b	3 (1–4)	3 (1–4)	0.789

PD: Parkinson’s disease; ACE-III: Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination; SD: standard deviation; FAB: Frontal Assessment Battery; STAI: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; MFES: Modified Falls Efficacy Scale; RBDSQ: Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder Screening Questionnaire. ^aχ² test. ^bMann–Whitney U test. ^cStudent’s t-test. ^dWelch’s test. Values in bold are statistically significant at p < 0.05.