Short answers, pulled from the story.
Neurologists treat conditions involving the nervous system, including stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, migraine, brain tumors, sleep disorders, dementias, Tourette syndrome, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. They are also called upon to evaluate unresponsive patients on life support to confirm brain death.
Neurologists in the United States typically complete eight to ten years of training in total. This includes four years of medical school, a four-year residency (with the first year in internal medicine), and an optional one to two years of fellowship in a subspecialty.
Neurology is a nonsurgical specialty focused on diagnosis and medical treatment of nervous system conditions. Neurosurgery is a distinct specialty with a separate training path that emphasizes surgical treatment; neurologists refer patients to neurosurgeons when an operation or endovascular procedure is required.
Neurology developed as an academic discipline between the 15th and 16th centuries, through the work of figures including Thomas Willis, Jean-Martin Charcot, and John Hughlings Jackson. The term neurologia appeared in texts from 1610 to describe the anatomical study of the nerves.
Neurologists use CT scans, MRI, electroencephalography (EEG), needle electromyography (EMG), nerve conduction studies, evoked potentials, lumbar punctures to examine cerebrospinal fluid, and genetic testing. The physical neurological examination assesses mental status, cranial nerves, strength, coordination, reflexes, sensation, and gait.
In a 2002 review article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Professor Joseph B. Martin, Dean of Harvard Medical School and a neurologist by training, wrote that the separation of neurology and psychiatry is arbitrary, often influenced by beliefs rather than proven scientific observations, and that the fact that the brain and mind are one makes the separation artificial.