Parkinson's Disease
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50 free Parkinson's Disease trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Parkinson's disease affects millions of people around the world, yet much of what makes it distinctive is little known outside the clinic. It is far more than a tremor: the earliest clues can appear years before any movement problem, and the story of how doctors learned to recognise and treat it is full of surprises. This quiz covers the ground a patient, carer or student would want to know: the early warning signs, the main movement and non-movement symptoms, what changes inside the nervous system, how the condition is staged from mild to advanced, the medicines and surgery used to manage it, and the risk factors researchers have identified. It also takes in the history behind the name and some of the public figures who have gone public with a diagnosis. It is written for people living with Parkinson's and their families, nursing and medical students revising neurology, support groups looking for an awareness activity, and anyone curious about neuroscience. Every answer comes with a short explanation, and the questions run from general knowledge to more specialist detail. It is a quiz for learning, not a diagnostic test: anyone worried about symptoms should see a doctor.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which actor hid a Parkinson's diagnosis for seven years, then founded its biggest research charity?
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox was diagnosed in 1991 but only went public in 1998, while starring in the sitcom Spin City. The foundation he launched in 2000 has raised more than $2 billion for research.
Q 02Which heavyweight champion with Parkinson's syndrome lit the flame at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics?
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic cauldron in Atlanta 12 years after his diagnosis. He and his doctors disputed reports that blows taken in the ring had caused his illness.
Q 03Which sense, often dulled years before Parkinson's is diagnosed, does Joy Milne use to detect it?
Smell
Smell is how Joy Milne picks out skin swabs taken from people with Parkinson's; she first noticed a change in her husband's scent. Her nose led chemists to a test that analyses sebum, the skin's natural oil.
Q 04James Parkinson first described the disease in an 1817 essay, calling it by what name?
The shaking palsy
The shaking palsy was his plain-English name for what he also called paralysis agitans. No portrait of Parkinson is known, so the faces sometimes printed beside his name belong to other men.
Q 05Which pope with Parkinson's was beatified after a French nun was declared cured of the same disease?
John Paul II
John Paul II was confirmed to have Parkinson's in 2001. Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, bedridden by the same illness, recovered after her community prayed to him, the miracle accepted for his beatification.
Q 06Which flower symbolises Parkinson's, after a grower named a red variety for James Parkinson?
Tulip
Tulip growers gave the cause its emblem: the red 'James Parkinson' variety was registered in 1981 and adopted as the symbol in 2005. World Parkinson's Day falls on the surgeon's birthday, 11 April.
Q 07Which neurologist wrote Awakenings, about immobile patients briefly revived by a Parkinson's drug?
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks gave it to survivors of the 1920s encephalitis lethargica epidemic at a hospital in the Bronx. Robin Williams played a doctor based on him in the 1990 film of the book.
Q 08Parkinson's is the second most common neurodegenerative condition; which one is more common still?
Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's is the only one that is more common. Parkinson's does not strike evenly, though: men are about 1.5 times more likely to have it than women.
Q 09Micrographia, which often appears before other Parkinson's symptoms, changes which everyday skill?
Handwriting
Handwriting that turns small and cramped is called micrographia. James Parkinson may have spotted it himself, describing "the hand failing to answer with exactness to the dictates of the will".
Q 10Which drink do studies most consistently link to a lower risk of developing Parkinson's?
Coffee
Coffee drinkers develop the disease less often, and caffeine is the suspected reason. Exercise and diets rich in fruit, vegetables and fish are linked to lower risk as well.
Q 11Parkinson's kills dopamine-making cells in which midbrain region, named for its dark pigment?
Substantia nigra
Substantia nigra is Latin for "black substance". By the time movement symptoms appear, 50 to 80 per cent of its dopamine-producing nerve cells have already been lost.
Q 12Which clumps found in Parkinson's nerve cells are named after the neurologist who discovered them?
Lewy bodies
Lewy bodies are named for Frederic Lewy, who spotted the microscopic particles in affected brains in 1912. A single nerve cell can hold more than one of them.
Q 13Which drug, first isolated from broad beans, has been the main Parkinson's therapy since the 1960s?
Levodopa
Q 21Which Black Sabbath singer with Parkinson's gave his farewell concert seated on a black throne?
Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne, no longer able to stand, sang from the throne at Birmingham's Back to the Beginning concert in July 2025. He had gone public with his diagnosis in January 2020.
Q 22Which singer, subject of the musical A Beautiful Noise, quit touring after a Parkinson's diagnosis?
Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond announced in January 2018 that he would stop touring. He has stayed active in raising awareness of the disease, and the Broadway show tells his life story through his own songs.
Q 23Which Scottish comic, a record 15-time guest on TV's Parkinson, later developed Parkinson's himself?
Billy Connolly
Levodopa works because nerve cells turn it into dopamine, topping up the brain's dwindling supply. It is usually taken with carbidopa, which cuts nausea and lets a smaller dose do the job.
Q 14Which Parkinson's surgery wires electrodes in the head to a pulse generator implanted in the chest?
Deep brain stimulation
Deep brain stimulation sends electrical pulses from a battery pack under the skin of the chest. Patients are often kept awake during the operation so their feedback can guide where each electrode goes.
Q 15In stage one of Parkinson's five stages, tremor and other movement symptoms appear where?
One side of the body
One side of the body is affected first, and symptoms are mild enough not to interfere with daily activities. At stage two they reach both sides or the midline, such as the neck and trunk.
Q 16Which problem is the hallmark of stage three, the midpoint of the five stages of Parkinson's?
Loss of balance
Loss of balance marks stage three, showing as unsteadiness when the person turns or is pushed while standing. This kind of trouble, and the falls it brings, typically arrives after about 10 years.
Q 17People with REM sleep behaviour disorder, a strong predictor of Parkinson's, do what in the night?
Act out their dreams
They act out their dreams, shouting, kicking or punching, because the paralysis that normally holds the body still in REM sleep is lost. It can begin years or even decades before Parkinson's shows itself.
Q 18Which French neurologist, a teacher of Sigmund Freud, had the disease renamed after James Parkinson?
Jean-Martin Charcot
Jean-Martin Charcot pressed for the change in the 1870s, after years spent refining the description of the illness. He also added slowness of movement to the list of core signs.
Q 19Which habit, harmful in nearly every other way, is strongly linked to a lower risk of Parkinson's?
Smoking
Smoking is tied to fewer cases, though nobody is sure why. Tobacco may protect nerve cells, or the link may run the other way, with the earliest phase of the disease changing who keeps the habit.
Q 20A bad batch of what kind of drug gave users in California sudden Parkinson's symptoms in the 1980s?
Synthetic opioid
A synthetic opioid called MPPP was to blame: careless chemistry left it laced with MPTP, a toxin that mimics Parkinson's almost exactly. Labs still use MPTP to recreate the disease and test treatments.
Billy Connolly, known as the Big Yin, revealed in 2013 that he was being treated for early symptoms. He retired from stand-up in 2018 and has since made a name as an artist.
Q 24Which US attorney general, the first woman in the post, learned she had Parkinson's while in office?
Janet Reno
Janet Reno learned she had the disease in 1995 and stayed on until 2001, the second-longest tenure of any attorney general. She took up inline skating the year after her diagnosis.
Q 25Which Hall of Fame quarterback revealed his Parkinson's diagnosis while testifying to Congress?
Brett Favre
Brett Favre broke the news at a 2024 hearing into misspent welfare funds in Mississippi. Years earlier he had wondered aloud whether his memory lapses were a legacy of the hits he took as a player.
Q 26Which actress played a young Parkinson's patient opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Love & Other Drugs?
Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway played Maggie Murdock, who falls for a drug salesman in 1990s Pittsburgh. In one scene Maggie wanders into a Parkinson's support group meeting across the street from a medical conference.
Q 27Which actor was Oscar-nominated as a patient revived by a Parkinson's drug in the film Awakenings?
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro played Leonard Lowe, who wakes from a catatonic state after decades and must adjust to an unfamiliar time. The 1990 film was also nominated for Best Picture.
Q 28Which Google figure, whose mother developed Parkinson's, has given over $1 billion to research?
Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin began in 2008 with a gift to the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where his mother, Eugenia, was being treated for the disease.
Q 29Slowness of movement is one of the four cardinal signs of Parkinson's; what is its medical name?
Bradykinesia
Bradykinesia is the most disabling symptom early on, turning fine tasks such as sewing or dressing into hard work. Doctors need to see it, along with stiffness or tremor, to make the diagnosis.
Q 30Paraquat and rotenone, both linked to a higher Parkinson's risk, are what kind of farm chemical?
Pesticides
Pesticides like these poison mitochondria, the power plants of the cell, and Parkinson's is more common where they are heavily used. That may explain a long-noticed link with rural living.