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. Indiana has 270 practicing neurologists. Broken out by city, neurology doctor density in Anderson is 7, in Angola is 1, in Auburn is 1, in Avon is 13, in Batesville is 2, in Bedford is 1, in Beech Grove is 1, in Bloomington is 5, in Bluffton is 1, in Boonville is 1, in Bremen is 1, in Carmel is 30, in Charlestown is 2, in Chesterton is 1, in Columbia City is 1, in Columbus is 4, in Connersville is 2, in Crawfordsville is 2, in Crown Point is 2, in Danville is 3, in East Chicago is 4, in Elkhart is 3, in Elwood is 7, in Evansville is 11, in Fishers is 3, in Fort Wayne is 13, in Frankfort is 2, in Franklin is 10, in Goshen is 4, in Greenfield is 29, in Greensburg is 4, in Hammond is 3, in Huntington is 4, in Indianapolis is 131, in Indpls is 1, in Jasper is 2, in Jeffersonville is 3, in Kendallville is 1, in Knox is 5, in Kokomo is 14, in La Porte is 3, in Lafayette is 14, in Lawrenceburg is 1, in Lebanon is 5, in Madison is 4, in Marion is 2, in Martinsville is 2, in Merrillville is 16, in Michigan City is 1, in Mishawaka is 1, in Mooresville is 8, in Muncie is 7, in Munster is 11, in New Albany is 6, in New Castle is 1, in Newburgh is 1, in Noblesville is 5, in Peru is 1, in Plainfield is 3, in Plymouth is 7, in Portage is 5, in Princeton is 1, in Renesselaer is 1, in Rensselaer is 2, in Richmond is 11, in Rushville is 1, in Saint John is 1, in Salem is 1, in Schererville is 2, in Scottsburg is 1, in Seymour is 1, in Shelbyville is 1, in South Bend is 9, in Tell City is 2, in Terre Haute is 7, in Tipton is 3, in Valparaiso is 8, in Vincennes is 1, in Warsaw is 2, in Washington is 1, and in Whiting is 1.

Indiana’s population is 6,271,973, and most of the state’s population is located in the north, near the Lake Michigan shoreline, and is part of the greater metro Chicago area. Indiana became a state in 1816, and boasts many historical sites and covered bridges, numerous state parks and forests, hunting and fishing, and a variety of golf courses. Centrally located Indianapolis is home to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, hosting the world-famous 500-mile auto race every year. This capital and largest city of Indiana also hosts a Civil War museum, a planetarium, and the Indiana Historical Society, among many other attractions.

According to 2005 Census estimates, Indiana has a population of 6,271,973. Of this population, 1,566,280 are under the age of 18 and 774,303 are at or above the age of 65.