"Brain pacemakers" are used to treat people who suffer from epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, major depression and other diseases. The pacemaker is a medical device that is implanted into the brain to send electrical signals into the tissue. Depending on the area of the brain that is targeted, the treatment is called deep brain stimulation, or cortical stimulation. Brain stimulation may be used both in treatment and prevention. Pacemakers may also be implanted outside the brain, on or near the spinal cord (spinal cord stimulation), and around cranial nerves such as the vagus nerve (vagus nerve stimulation), and on or near peripheral nerves.

Epilepsy refers to a wide variety of neurological disorders characterized by sudden recurring attacks of motor, sensory, or psychic malfunction with or without loss of consciousness or convulsive seizures. The implantation of pacemakers in the brain may control or eliminate epileptic seizures with programmed or responsive stimulation.

The deep brain stimulation used in pacemakers to treat Parkinson's disease can help reduce symptoms such as tremors, rigidity, stiffness, slowed movement, and walking problems. The procedure also treats essential tremor, a neurological movement disorder. After the pacemaker is surgically implanted into the brain, electrical impulses are sent to the stimulator and into the brain. The procedure is generally only used for patients whose symptoms cannot be controlled with medication. The exact mechanism of action of DBS is not known. There exist three hypotheses to explain the mechanisms of DBS:

The Cure are an English alternative rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first began releasing music in the late 1970s with its debut album Three Imaginary Boys (1979); this, along with several early singles, placed the band as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s, the band's increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre.

After the release of Pornography (1982), the band's future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the 1982 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to place a pop sensibility into the band's music (as well as a unique stage look). The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world. The band is estimated to have sold 27 million albums as of 2004. The Cure have released thirteen studio albums, 10 EPs and over thirty singles during the course of their career. Since 2010, they have been working on a fourteenth studio album.