ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)
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40 free ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is one of the most studied and least understood diseases of the nervous system. It attacks the motor neurons that carry orders from the brain to the muscles, and it has shaped the lives of athletes, artists and scientists whose stories made the wider world pay attention. This quiz covers the science and the history together: how the disease starts and spreads, the signs doctors look for, the genes and proteins researchers have tied to it, the drugs approved to slow it, and the public figures and fundraising campaigns that brought it into the news. It is written for students revising neurology, carers and families who want to understand a diagnosis, and anyone curious about how the body's wiring works. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something whether you get it right or wrong.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which New York Yankees first baseman, who retired in 1939, gave ALS its common American name?
Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig played 2,130 consecutive games before unexplained weakness ended his streak in May 1939. He died of the disease two years later, aged 37.
Q 02Which Cambridge physicist was diagnosed with ALS at 21, given two years to live, and survived for over 50?
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking had an unusually slow-moving form of the disease. In later life he worked his speech synthesizer with a single cheek muscle.
Q 03Which viral social media stunt of summer 2014 raised more than $115 million to fight ALS?
Ice Bucket Challenge
The Ice Bucket Challenge had people film themselves being drenched in freezing water, then nominate friends to follow. The money helped fund the discovery of NEK1, a gene linked to ALS.
Q 04Stephen Hillenburg, who kept working after an ALS diagnosis in 2017, created which long-running Nickelodeon cartoon?
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants grew out of a tide-pool picture book Hillenburg made while teaching marine biology. He died in 2018, aged 57.
Q 05Movement of which body part is usually spared by ALS, letting many patients communicate through special computers?
Eyes
Eyes usually stay under voluntary control even late in the disease. Gaze-tracking screens let people type and speak simply by looking at letters.
Q 06Which disease, unlike ALS, is caused by the immune system attacking the myelin coating around nerve fibres?
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis strips the insulation from nerve fibres, while ALS kills the nerve cells that drive the muscles. MS often comes and goes in relapses; ALS advances steadily.
Q 07Which Mitch Albom memoir recounts his visits to a former professor who was dying of ALS?
Tuesdays with Morrie
Tuesdays with Morrie began after Albom saw his old sociology professor interviewed on Nightline. It spent more than four years on the New York Times bestseller list.
Q 08In which country is ALS usually called motor neurone disease, a term coined by neurologist Russell Brain?
Britain
In Britain, motor neurone disease, or MND, is the umbrella term. Brain proposed it in 1933, believing that several muscle-wasting conditions were forms of one illness.
Q 09Which group does research suggest is up to twice as likely to develop ALS, for reasons that remain unclear?
Military veterans
Military veterans may meet pesticides and other toxins in service, though no cause is proven. Since 2008 the US has presumed ALS to be service-connected after 90 days of active duty.
Q 10Failure of which body function causes most ALS deaths, usually within three to five years of the first symptoms?
Breathing
Breathing fails as the diaphragm and chest muscles weaken. A ventilator worn through a face mask can ease symptoms and lengthen life.
Q 11Which French doctor, known as the founder of modern neurology, first described ALS in 1869?
Jean-Martin Charcot
Jean-Martin Charcot matched his patients' symptoms to the nerve damage he found at autopsy. His students at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris included Sigmund Freud.
Q 12The word 'amyotrophic' in the full name of ALS comes from Greek roots with what literal meaning?
No muscle nourishment
No muscle nourishment is the literal sense: a- for no, myo- for muscle, trophe for nourishment. Muscles that lose their nerve supply shrink as if starved.
Q 13What term do doctors use for the nine in ten ALS cases with no family history of the disease?
Sporadic
Q 21A repeated six-letter DNA sequence in which gene, identified in 2011, is the most common inherited cause of ALS?
C9orf72
C9orf72 is named for its address: chromosome 9, open reading frame 72. Healthy copies repeat the sequence a handful of times; faulty ones can repeat it thousands of times.
Q 22Clumps of which protein are found inside the motor neurons of about 97 percent of people with ALS?
TDP-43
TDP-43 normally works in the cell nucleus, helping to control which genes are switched on. In ALS it leaks out and piles up in the surrounding cytoplasm.
Q 23On which Pacific island did the Chamorro people develop an ALS-like illness at 100 times the usual rate?
Guam
Guam's outbreak was the leading cause of adult death among the Chamorro between 1945 and 1956. One theory blames a toxin from cycad seeds, concentrated in the fruit bats that islanders ate.
Sporadic ALS has no single known cause, though genes and environment are both thought to contribute. The remaining cases, called familial, run in families.
Q 14What name is given to the quarter of ALS cases that begin in the muscles of speech and swallowing?
Bulbar onset
Bulbar onset takes its name from the bulb, an old term for the lowest part of the brainstem, which controls the mouth and throat. Slurred or nasal speech is a typical early sign.
Q 15What is the medical name for the fleeting muscle twitches under the skin that can be an early sign of ALS?
Fasciculations
Fasciculations arise when a lower motor neuron fires on its own. Most are harmless: up to 70 percent of healthy people get them now and then.
Q 16Which drug, approved for ALS in the United States in 1995, extends survival by two to three months?
Riluzole
Riluzole, sold as Rilutek, won European approval a year later. In some people it also delays the point at which a ventilator is needed.
Q 17An excess of which chemical messenger is thought to overexcite and kill motor neurons in ALS?
Glutamate
Glutamate carries signals between nerve cells, but too much floods them with calcium, a process called excitotoxicity. Motor neurons are unusually vulnerable to it.
Q 18Which test, usually paired with a nerve conduction study, helps doctors confirm a diagnosis of ALS?
Electromyography
Electromyography uses a fine needle electrode to pick up the electrical activity of muscles. No single test proves ALS, so doctors must also rule out look-alike conditions.
Q 19Which Grammy-winning soul singer retired in 2022 after ALS made it impossible for her to sing?
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack was the first artist to win the Grammy for Record of the Year two years running. She died in 2025, aged 88.
Q 20Which gene on chromosome 21 became, in 1993, the first to be linked to inherited ALS?
SOD1
SOD1 carries the instructions for an enzyme that mops up toxic oxygen radicals. Well over 100 different mutations in it have since been tied to the disease.
Q 24Which former New Orleans Saints player, famed for a 2006 blocked punt, won a Congressional Gold Medal for ALS advocacy?
Steve Gleason
Steve Gleason revealed his diagnosis in 2011 and became the first NFL player to receive the medal. A statue of his punt block, titled Rebirth, stands outside the Superdome.
Q 25Which blues singer, the self-styled King of the Twelve-String Guitar, was diagnosed with ALS on a 1949 European tour?
Lead Belly
Lead Belly died in New York later that year. The following year the Weavers took his song Goodnight, Irene to number one in the United States.
Q 26Which neurologist's name is given to the upward curl of the big toe that signals upper motor neuron damage in ALS?
Joseph Babinski
Joseph Babinski's toe response is a normal reflex in infants. In an adult it indicates damage to the brain or spinal cord.
Q 27What is the medical term for the wasting away of muscles that have lost their nerve supply in ALS?
Atrophy
Atrophy follows because muscles cut off from their motor neurons no longer receive signals to contract. About two-thirds of cases begin with weakness in an arm or a leg.
Q 28Which drug, approved for ALS in the United States in 2017, was already used in Japan to treat stroke?
Edaravone
Edaravone, sold as Radicava, is an antioxidant thought to shield nerve cells from oxidative stress. It modestly slows decline in some people with early-stage ALS.
Q 29Which medical term names the swallowing difficulty that develops in about 85 percent of people with ALS?
Dysphagia
Dysphagia raises the risk of choking and of food slipping into the lungs. When eating is no longer safe, a feeding tube can maintain weight and nutrition.
Q 30Which term describes the muscle stiffness and tightness caused by upper motor neuron damage in ALS?
Spasticity
Spasticity comes with brisk, exaggerated reflexes, another mark of upper motor neuron damage. Loss of lower motor neurons instead leaves muscles weak and twitching.