Objective: To determine the prevalence of pareidolic illusions in participants enrolled in the East London Parkinson’s Disease (ELPD) Project using the Noise Pareidolia Task (NPT), and to explore whether pareidolia differs between White and South Asian (SA) participants.
Background: Illusions are an early diagnostic feature of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) psychosis and are associated with increased risk of progression to hallucinations and delusions. SA patients in this cohort have been shown to have higher odds of cognitive impairment, which is known to be associated with PD psychosis.
Method: We administered a computerised NPT to ELPD participants, a cohort recruited to be as representative as possible of people from South Asian and White ethnic groups with PD in East London, and a healthy control (HC) comparator group without neurological conditions or cognitive impairment; we reported prevalence of pareidolic illusions and conducted a logistic regression with pareidolic illusions as a dependent variable, entering PD diagnosis and ethnicity as interaction terms.
Results: 77 patients (39 White, 38 SA) and 73 healthy controls (HCs) (24 White, 49 SA) were recruited. Pareidolic illusions were more common in PD (46.8%, 95% CI 35.4-58.4) than HC (15.1%, 95% CI 8.1-25.8). SA HCs had comparable odds of pareidolia compared to White HCs (OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.1-1.2, p=0.11). The odds of pareidolic illusions between White PD patients and HCs were not significant (OR 2.09, 95% CI 0.7-6.8) but there was a significantly increased odds between SA PD and HCs (OR 9.8, 95% CI 3.34-33.1). The effect of PD on pareidolia was stronger in SA compared to White (OR 4.7, 95% CI 1.0-23.7, p=0.057) suggestive of an interaction between ethnicity and PD diagnosis.
Conclusion: Pareidolic illusions were common in PD patients in the ELPD cohort and were significantly more prevalent than in HCs. The association between PD and pareidolia appeared stronger in SA participants, although evidence for interaction was borderline and requires confirmation in larger cohorts, adjusted for relevant confounders. The NPT was feasible to administer across ethnic groups and may provide an objective measure of visuoperceptual disturbance in PD.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
E. Camboe, KC. Dey, A. Zirra, S. Waters, E. Bhadra, R. Laban, B. Huxford, C. Simonet, C. Budu, DA. Gallagher, V. Azoidou, T. Boyle, C. Cooper, AJ. Noyce. Face Pareidolia in the East London Parkinson’s Disease Project [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2026; 41 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/face-pareidolia-in-the-east-london-parkinsons-disease-project/. Accessed October 1, 2026.« Back to 2026 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/face-pareidolia-in-the-east-london-parkinsons-disease-project/