You might be familiar with Pareidolia, “a perception of recognizable patterns or images from random external stimuli.” This is a common tendency of the mind to create meaning out of otherwise meaningless shape — most commonly what’s perceived are faces, and this tendency appears more in those with Lewy Body Dementia. One study found that patients with Parkinson’s disease often experienced pareidolia related to anxiety. Persons with LBD “had more pareidolic illusions compared to patients with Alzheimer’s disease or healthy controls and could be a clinical marker differentiating Alzheimer’s from LBD.”
To me, this is very interesting, but not really a surprise, and is consistent with what I’ve experienced. I suspect that many of the hallucinatory experiences persons with LBD have are related to this phenomenon, rather than being entirely created without stimuli that “suggests” an element of the hallucination.
What do you think?
Here’s to more clarity and understanding! Read the full Pareidolia article, or s PDF of this article from Psychology Today.
Strength and courage to all.
Timothy Hudson
I think that the patterns sensed in LBD is caused by the observer’s not being connected to their cognitive function other than the visual patterns. I noticed this: I’m my mom when she was affected and I was able to observe them as well. She said to me once, look at that tree, it looks like a gorilla eating a man and was easily discernible.
I agree, Allen — I have been much more alert to the phenomenon since my mom had LBD, and would see things — it seems likely to be responsible for at least some of the incidents, and as you said, if there’s a disconnect between what’s seen, and how that visual stimulus is interpreted, it could easily result in some of the hallucinations that are common with LBD.
It’s a keen observation you’ve made.
Strength and courage to you.
Timothy Hudson