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Clinical reasoning is an essential part of being a physician who evaluates patients for diagnosis, and neurologists are well versed in the basic functions of the human brain. Nevertheless, even neurologists have little familiarity with the large body of psychological research on important pitfalls in how humans think and make decisions on a daily basis (JW Neurol Sep 7 2010). The authors use cases of misdiagnosis in real-world clinical neurological practice to illustrate five of the most common and important mental traps (“biases”) associated with mental shortcuts (“heuristics”).
Traps illustrated include being unduly swayed by early cues in how cases are presented (framing effects); inability to switch gears after making an initial diagnosi…