Talk:Brain pacemaker

Looks like this was directly copied from another article with no regards to formatting.

Need to have separate entries for each. Reference to the mfr. of the vagus nerve stimulator suggests an attempt to equate two very different treatments, in order to make one seem equivalent to the other.

Articles already exist on deep brain stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation. Part of this article seems to have been copied from here: http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/02/28/neurosurgery050228.html?ref=rss (possible copyvio) - GridEpsilon 01:21, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

This is a very nonspecific term, and not one which would be used by a neurologist. The devices used for epilepsy and for parkinson's disease are quite different. I would just delete the page entirely, and redirect the term 'brain pacemaker' to either 'vagal nerve stimulator' for epilepsy, or 'deep brain stimulator' for parkinson's disease and movement disorders.
 * I'm not sure that 'brain pacemaker' should redirect to 'vagal nerve stimulator'. Dr. Fischell's device is used for epilepsy, and it's not the same as a vagal nerve stimulator. See: NeuroPace MoodyGroove 01:44, 26 January 2007 (UTC)MoodyGroove
 * I think NeuroPace falls under deep brain stimulation. MoodyGroove 01:49, 26 January 2007 (UTC)MoodyGroove

Brain Pacemaker
As someone mentioned above, this term is not used in clinical practice but has been bandied about in the popular press, but not even there that often. It definitely does not deserve its own article. If I knew how to request deletion, I would.Desoto10 (talk) 05:12, 17 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I have declined the proposed deletion of this article. It seems to contain valid and referenced information, even if "brain pacemaker" is not a preferred clinical term.  If this is the popular term, it ought to have an article because it is what people will be searching for.  You may have a case for this information to be merged or redirected to a different article, or perhaps made into a disambiguation if "brain pacemaker" may refer to multiple devices treated differently by neurologists.  - Smerdis of Tlön (talk) 17:50, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

The page should be deleted after the information is moved to other relevant (perhaps new) articles. 'Brain pacemaker' is not the popular, preferred, or even appropriate clinical or layperson term - it has been used (many times appropriately) to compare to cardiac pacemakers, which have historically been more widely known. The term is misleading as applied herein - stimulators need not necessarily 'pace', and they need not necessarily first affect the brain. Something akin to 'Electrical Neural Stimulator' or 'Electrical Neurostimulator' would be a good general term, encompassing spinal chord stimulation (SCS), vagal nerve stimulation (VNS), deep brain stimulation (DBS), peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS), cortical stimulation, retinal stimulation, ect.

Within each of these applications, a separate article could exist to enumerate the past/present/future devices - e.g., 'Deep Brain Stimulator' for the DBS application. Such subdivisions are important, as devices/methods/technology/anatomy/physiology differ greatly in these different applications. This distinctions could otherwise been dealt with in subsections of the 'Electrical Neural Stimulator' article. Aeth909 (talk) 23:16, 25 June 2012 (UTC)


 * This page should be merged into Neurostimulator and deleted. References should be corrected in brain implant, and many references to deep brain stimulation and treated diseases such as parkinson's disease. A subsection or sentence may mention colloquial reference to 'brain pacemaker'.