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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
A new study finds that minor hallucinations and a tendency to see faces or shapes in random patterns (pareidolia) are the strongest early signs that set Lewy body dementia apart from Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, poor episodic memory remains the hallmark of early Alzheimer's. These findings could sharpen early diagnosis in routine clinical settings.
Distinguishing dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) from Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the early stages is notoriously tricky — but a new study suggests that minor hallucinations and perceptual distortions may be the clearest differentiators. Researchers in Spain compared 60 patients with early-stage AD to 61 with early-stage DLB and found that subtle visual phenomena — like sensing a presence or seeing something pass by — were far more common in DLB patients. Episodic memory problems, on the other hand, remained the defining feature of early AD.
The study also used a "pareidolia test," which measures how often someone sees meaningful images (like faces) in random visual noise. DLB patients scored significantly higher, pointing to a broader susceptibility to perceptual distortions that standard cognitive tests often miss.
By the numbers:
Why it matters: Early and accurate differentiation between DLB and AD is critical because the two conditions require different management strategies. Adding structured assessments for minor hallucinations and perceptual distortions to routine clinical evaluations could meaningfully improve diagnostic accuracy before disease progression makes distinctions harder to draw.
