Wirehead (science fiction)

Niven's stories explain wireheads by mentioning a study in which experimental rats had electrodes implanted at strategic locations in their brains, so that an applied current would induce a pleasant feeling.

Such experiments were actually conducted by James Olds and Peter Milner in the 1950s, first discovering the locations of such areas, and later showing the extremes to which rats would go to obtain the stimulus again.

[6][7] In the novel Mindkiller (1982) by Spider Robinson, the antagonist "Jacques" has the ability to wirehead his targets by inducing an enslaving brain-ecstasy from a distance.

[8] The Shaper/Mechanist stories by Bruce Sterling use the term "wirehead" in the broader sense of people or cyborgs who can link their minds to computers or other technology.

[9] In The Terminal Man (1972) by Michael Crichton, forty electrodes are implanted into the brain of the character Harold Franklin "Harry" Benson to control his seizures.