Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 28, 2026

A Protocol of Manual Tests to Measure Sensation and Pain in Humans
Published on: December 19, 2016
Musculoskeletal pareidolia in medical education
Patrick Foye1, Dena Abdelshahed, Shounuck Patel
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA.
Background:
Medical educators use a variety of strategies to help medical students and resident doctors understand and remember complex topics.
Methods:
One teaching tool is matching up radiographic appearances with unrelated, common, non-medical images, in order to help students easily recognise clinical patterns.
Discussion:
However, even among medical educators who use this approach, many are not aware of the neuropsychiatric phenomenon they are using, known as pareidolia. We will describe pareidolia (a form of patternicity) and give two examples of its use in the clinical teaching of musculoskeletal imaging abnormalities: the winking owl and the Scottie dog.
Related Concept Videos
Blood and Nerve Supply to the Bones
Nutrient Artery
The nutrient artery is the main blood vessel that enters the diaphysis via the nutrient foramen. While most long bones have only one nutrient foramen, large bones, such as the femur, may have two. This...
Peripheral Arterial Disease II: Clinical Manifestations and Diagnostic Evaluation
Nociception
Somatosensation
Local Anesthetics: Differential Sensitivity of Nerve Fibers
Spinal Nerves: Plexus I
The Cervical Plexus
The cervical plexus, formed by the anterior rami of the first four...

