An elderly man tormented by musical hallucinations finally found relief after receiving hearing aids, only to start seeing imaginary small spiders instead, in a landmark case reported by Portuguese doctors.

The 71-year-old began complaining he was hearing choral music including folk songs, nursery rhymes, well-known hymns and a popular football chant five years after being diagnosed as probably having dementia with Lewy bodies.

The songs were constantly present and were only partly attenuated by environmental noise, say doctors from the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Medicine.

“The patient initially thought the music was being played outside, but came to realise it was an odd phenomenon somehow generated in his brain,” they wrote in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.