Neurology is the branch of medicine that deals with the nervous system and disorders affecting it. Medical specialists in neurology are called neurologists. Surgical operations on the nervous system are done by specialist neurosurgeons. See drugs, medication, and pharmacology for substances that are used to treat patients. ... Neurosurgery is the surgical discipline focused on treating the central and peripheral nervous system. ...

Neurological disorders are disorders of the central nervous system (brain, brainstem and cerebellum), the peripheral nervous system (neuropathy, including cranial nerves), or the autonomic nervous system (parts of which are located in both central and peripheral nervous system). Major conditions include: The human central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord. ... In the anatomy of animals, the brain, or encephalon, is the supervisory center of the nervous system. ... The brain stem is the stalk of the brain below the cerebral hemispheres. ... Cerebellum (in blue) of the human brain General Features Location: It is found at the bottom rear of the head (the hindbrain), directly above the brainstem. ... The peripheral nervous system or PNS, is part of the nervous system, and consists of the nerves and neurons that reside or extend outside the central nervous system--to serve the limbs and organs, for example. ... Neuropathy is a disease of the peripheral nervous system. ... Cranial nerves are nerves which start directly from the brainstem instead of the spinal cord. ... Anatomy and Physiology of the A.N.S. In contrast to the voluntary nervous system, the involuntary or autonomic nervous system is responsible for homeostasis, maintaining a relatively constant internal environment by controlling such involuntary functions as digestion, respiration, and metabolism, and by modulating blood pressure. ...

• headache
• stupor and coma
• dementia, including Alzheimer's disease
• seizures and epilepsy
• sleep disorders
• cerebral palsy
• infections
• neoplasms,
• movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease
• demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis
• spinal cord disorders, and
• disorders of peripheral nerves, muscle and neuromuscular junctions.

Along with treating all of the above disorders, the responsibilities of a neurologist include making a finding of brain death when it is suspected that a patient is deceased, and filling out the paperwork to ensure issuance of a death certificate for the patient. A headache is a condition of mild to severe pain in the head; sometimes upper back or neck pain may also be interpreted as a headache. ... For other meanings of the word coma, especially in astronomy, see coma (disambiguation) In medicine, a coma is a profound state of unconsciousness, which may result from a variety of conditions including intoxication (drug, alcohol or toxins), metabolic abnormalities (hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, ketoacidosis, etc. ... Dementia (from Latin demens) is progressive decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the brain beyond what might be expected from normal aging. ... Alzheimers disease (AD) or senile dementia of Alzheimers type is a neurodegenerative disease which results in a loss of mental functions due to the deterioration of brain tissue. ... This article is about the medical condition. ... Epilepsy (often referred to as a seizure disorder) is a chronic neurological condition characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. ... Definition A sleep disorder is a disorder in the sleep patterns of a person or animal. ... Cerebral palsy or CP is a group of disorders associated with developmental brain injuries that occur during fetal development, birth, or shortly after birth. ... Infection is also the title of an episode of the television series Babylon 5; see Infection (Babylon 5). ... Neoplasia (literally: new growth) is sudden and abnormal growth in a tissue or organ. ... List of Movement disorders Akinesia (lack of movement) Athetosis (contorted torsion or twisting) Ataxia Ballismus (violent involuntary rapid and irregular movements) Hemiballismus Bradykinesia (slow movement) Chorea (rapid, involuntary movement) Sydenhams chorea Rheumatic chorea Huntingtons chorea Dystonia (sustained torsion) Dystonia muscularum Blepharospasm Writers cramp Spasmodic torticollis (twisting of... Parkinsons disease (PD; paralysis agitans) is a neurodegenerative disease of the substantia nigra (an area in the basal ganglia of the brain). ... A demyelinating disease is any disease of the nervous system in which the myelin sheath of neurons is damaged. ... Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease, a non-contagious chronic autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system which can present with a variety of neurological symptoms occurring in attacks or slowly progressing over time. ... The spinal cord is a part of the vertebrate nervous system that is enclosed in and protected by the vertebral column (it passes through the spinal canal). ... A nerve is an enclosed, cable-like bundle of nerve fibers or axons, which includes the glia that ensheath the axons in myelin. ... Structure of a skeletal muscle Muscle is one of the four tissue types. ... A neuromuscular junction is the junction of the axon terminal of a motoneuron with the motor end plate, the highly-excitable region of muscle fiber plasma membrane responsible for initiation of action potentials across the muscles surface. ... Brain death is defined as a complete and irreversible cessation of brain activity. ... A patient is the name given to any person who is ill or injured and is being treated by, or in need of treatment by, a physician or other medical professional. ... This page deals with the cessation of life. ... A death certificate is a document issued by an official, such as a government registar, that declares the date, location and cause of a persons death. ...

Many mental illnesses are believed to be neurological disorders of the central nervous system, but they are classified separately. They are not traditionally listed as neurological diseases because their causes are not definitely determined as biological, although there are good reasons to suspect that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia have neuro-chemical causes. The Scream, the famous painting commonly thought of as depicting the experience of mental illness. ... Bipolar Affective Disorder, also known as manic depression, or BPAD is a disorder of the brain resulting in unusually extreme highs and lows of an individuals mood, i. ... Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness variously affecting behavior, thinking, and emotion. ...

External links

• http://www.aan.com American Academy of Neurology.
• http://www.neuropsychological.blogspot.com/ brainblog: news about our knowledge of the brain and behavior.

See also

• List of neurological disorders
• List of neurologists
• Clinical neurophysiology

This is a list of major and frequently observed neurological disorders (e. ... This is a list of the most important neurologists, with their dates of birth and death and nationality. ... Clinical neurophysiology is a medical speciality that studies the central and peripheral nervous systems through the recording of bioelectrical activity, whether spontaneous or stimulated. ...