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While the doctors said they were familiar with Alzheimer's, none is an expert in it. But an Alzheimer's specialist - after reviewing videotapes of news conferences and major events late in [Ronald Reagan]'s presidency, as well as the doctors' descriptions - said he, too, saw no evidence that Reagan had the disease as president. (Alzheimer's hereditary pattern is not precisely known. Though it is not stated on his death certificate, Reagan's brother, Neil, is believed to have had Alzheimer's before dying of a heart attack in December 1996 at the age of 88.) Watching for changes in president While they said they were not aware of Reagan's pledge, [Lawrence C. Mohr] said he and [John Hutton] 'certainly wanted to watch for any increase' in forgetfulness. At the same time, they acknowledged that, beyond their observations and conversations, they had not taken any special medical measures to assess Reagan's mental competence while in office. (Questions about Reagan's mental state had been raised again that spring, when he testified in the Iran-Contra trial of his former national security adviser, Vice Adm. John Poindexter. Reagan, for example, did not know that Poindexter's predecessor, Robert McFarlane, had pleaded guilty when Reagan was president; nor could he identify the chairman of his Joint Chiefs of Staff. Videotapes of the testimony were viewed by the Alzheimer's expert consulted by The New York Times. While he saw hints that might have led him to probe further, he said, he found no definitive evidence of the disease.) Actor's ability to overcome obstacles While in office, he may often have been detached and uninterested in details, but Reagan had the actor's ability to rise to the occasion when he cared about something, or knew he had to, his friends and aides said

In February 1996, George Shultz went to visit his old boss, Ronald Reagan, at the former president's home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He drank tea with Reagan and his wife, Nancy, and talked a little politics. In all, he stayed perhaps an hour. At one point in the visit, Reagan had left the room briefly with a nurse. When they came back, Mrs. Reagan went on, `he said to the nurse: 'Who is that man sitting with Nancy on the couch? I know him. He is a very famous man.' ` Reagan `absolutely` did not `show any signs of dementia or Alzheimer's,` said Dr. John Hutton, who cared for him from 1984 until the end of his presidency and remains a close family friend. Extensive mental status tests did not indicate evidence of Alzheimer's until 1993, more than four years after Reagan left office, Hutton said

The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded Monday to Stanley Prusiner, a 55-year-old maverick scientist at the University of California at San Francisco whose discoveries about infectious particles called prions have been criticized by other researchers as unproved. The Nobel committee compounded its departure from the tradition of rubber stamping well-accepted scientific work by awarding the prize to only one researcher, emphasizing its confidence in Prusiner's discovery of a ``new genre of disease-causing agents.'' Most of Prusiner's critics accept that prions exist but not that they are necessarily agents of disease

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded yesterday to Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner, a 55-year-old maverick scientist in San Francisco whose discoveries about infectious particles called prions have been criticized by other researchers as unproved. The Nobel committee compounded its departure from the tradition of rubber stamping well-accepted scientific work by awarding the prize to only one researcher, emphasizing its confidence in Dr. Prusiner's discovery of a ''new genre of disease-causing agents.'' These agents, neither bacteria nor fungi nor viruses, are proteins and have been linked to mad cow disease and other lethal brain-wasting conditions. The committee cited Dr. Prusiner for discovering the rogue prion proteins as ''a new biological principle of infection'' and adding them ''to the list of well-known infectious agents.'' But some scientists doubt that they can cause disease because unlike other infectious agents, they contain no genetic material

It has been almost three years since Reagan disclosed that he had the memory-destroying neurological illness known as Alzheimer's disease. And if, at the age of 86, the old movie actor still looks the image of vigorous good health, the truth is that the man behind the firm handshake and barely gray hair is steadily, surely ebbing away. Just when the Alzheimer's began can never be known. But while the line between mere forgetfulness and the beginning of Alzheimer's can be fuzzy, a matter of gradation, Reagan's four main White House doctors say they saw no evidence that he had crossed it as president. They saw and spoke with him daily in the White House, they said, and beyond the natural failings of age, never found his memory, reasoning or judgment to be significantly impaired. Reagan 'absolutely' did not 'show any signs of dementia or Alzheimer's,' said Dr. John Hutton, who cared for him from 1984 until the end of his presidency and remains a close family friend. Extensive mental status tests did not indicate evidence of Alzheimer's until 1993, more than four years after Reagan left office, Hutton said

In February 1996, George Shultz went to visit his old boss Ronald Reagan at the former president's home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He drank tea with Reagan and his wife, Nancy, and talked a little politics. In all, he stayed perhaps an hour. At one point in the visit, Reagan had left the room briefly with a nurse. When they came back, Mrs. Reagan went on: 'He said to the nurse: `Who is that man sitting with Nancy on the couch? I know him. He is a very famous man.' It has been almost three years since Reagan disclosed that he had the memory-destroying neurological illness known as Alzheimer's disease. And if, at the age of 86, the old movie actor still looks the image of vigorous good health, the truth is that the man behind the firm handshake and barely gray hair is steadily, surely ebbing away

At one point in the visit, Reagan had left the room briefly with a nurse. When they came back, Mrs. Reagan went on, 'he said to the nurse, `Who is that man sitting with Nancy on the couch? I know him. He is a very famous man.' ' Reagan 'absolutely' did not 'show any signs of dementia or Alzheimer's,' said John Hutton, the physician who cared for him from 1984 until the end of his presidency and who remains a close family friend. Extensive mental status tests did not indicate evidence of Alzheimer's until 1993, more than four years after Reagan left office, Hutton said. Lawrence Mohr, one of the White House doctors in Reagan's second term, was seeing him for the first time in six months, and afterward, the doctor and the former president talked. As usual, Reagan asked about Mohr's family. But Reagan 'was distant,' he said, and seemed 'preoccupied, which was unusual because Ronald Reagan is a person who was engaged when he would talk to you.'

At one point in the visit, Reagan had left the room briefly with a nurse. When they came back, Mrs. Reagan went on, 'He said to the nurse: `Who is that man sitting with Nancy on the couch? I know him. He is a very famous man.' ' Reagan 'absolutely' did not 'show any signs of dementia or Alzheimer's,' said Dr. John Hutton, who cared for him from 1984 until the end of his presidency and remains a close family friend. Extensive mental status tests did not indicate evidence of Alzheimer's until 1993, more than four years after Reagan left office, Hutton said. Dr. Lawrence C. Mohr, one of the White House doctors in Reagan's second term, was seeing him for the first time in six months, and afterward, the doctor and the former president talked. As usual, Reagan asked about Mohr's family. But Reagan 'was distant,' he said, and seemed 'preoccupied, which was unusual, because Ronald Reagan is a person who was engaged when he would talk to you.'

When President Reagan disclosed in November 1994 that he had Alzheimer's disease, many people could not help suspecting that the illness had begun to rob him of memory while he was in the White House. 'There was never anything that would raise a question about his ability to function as president,' said Dr. Lawrence C. Mohr, one of Reagan's physicians in his second term. 'Ronald Reagan's cognitive function, belief structure, judgment, ability to choose between options, behavior and ability to communicate were totally and completely intact.' Dr. John Hutton, chief White House physician during Reagan's last two years in office and a close family friend, said he was speaking out with the permission of the former president's wife, Nancy, chiefly to rebut published statements questioning Reagan's mental status in office

In February 1996, George Shultz went to visit his old boss, Ronald Reagan, at the former president's home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He drank tea with Reagan and his wife, Nancy, talked a little politics, then left. That night Shultz, the former secretary of State, received a call from Mrs. Reagan, who told him that 'something poignant happened today that you would like to know about.' At one point in the visit, Reagan had left the room briefly with a nurse. When they came back, Mrs. Reagan went on, 'he said to the nurse: `Who is that man sitting with Nancy on the couch? I know him. He is a very famous man.' '