Neurology is the study of disorders of the nervous system. A neurologist is a physician who diagnoses and treats nervous system disorders of the brain, spinal cord and nerves. This specialist deals with problems related to brain disease, disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and the nerves, and the blood vessels that provide circulation to these organs. A neurologist also treats specific diseases such as Bell’s palsy, cerebellar ataxia and meningitis.

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are stroke, guillain-barré syndrome, brain tumor, migraine, meningitis, seizure, parkinson's disease, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, coma, multiple sclerosis, alzheimer's disease, cluster headache, ischemic stroke, encephalitis, encephalopathy, botulism, chorea, lou gehrig's disease, and ataxia.

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including electroconvulsive therapy and electroencephalogram (eeg).

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including cat scan of the brain, ct scan of the brain, mri scan of the brain, mri scan of the spine, magnetic resonance imaging (mri), computed axial tomography (ct or cat scan), myelogram, spinal tap, lumbar puncture (lp), electromyography (emg), myelography, positron emission tomography (pet scan), spinal puncture, nerve conduction velocity (ncv), electroencephalography, cerebral angiogram, electronystagmography (eng), ocular pressures, csf collection, and myogram.

Doctor density varies by specialty and location. The United States has 12,893 practicing neurologists. Broken out by state, neurology doctor density in Alabama is 171, in Alaska is 17, in Arizona is 251, in Arkansas is 75, in California is 1,419, in Colorado is 170, in Connecticut is 189, in Delaware is 30, in District of Columbia is 115, in Florida is 745, in Georgia is 331, in Hawaii is 44, in Idaho is 27, in Illinois is 511, in Indiana is 271, in Iowa is 113, in Kansas is 106, in Kentucky is 137, in Louisiana is 158, in Maine is 54, in Maryland is 372, in Massachusetts is 820, in Michigan is 462, in Minnesota is 327, in Mississippi is 75, in Missouri is 312, in Montana is 39, in Nebraska is 51, in Nevada is 65, in New Hampshire is 60, in New Jersey is 399, in New Mexico is 64, in New York is 1,190, in North Carolina is 328, in North Dakota is 29, in Ohio is 440, in Oklahoma is 111, in Oregon is 160, in Pennsylvania is 628, in Rhode Island is 67, in South Carolina is 164, in South Dakota is 29, in Tennessee is 215, in Texas is 681, in Utah is 94, in Vermont is 48, in Virginia is 299, in Washington is 244, in West Virginia is 60, in Wisconsin is 278, and in Wyoming is 12.