A term proposed to describe people who become addicted to electrical stimulation of the pleasure centers of the brain. An addict of this type would probably behave like a rat in a Skinner box, ignoring all other activities such as eating and copulating in favor of the electrical stimulation.
While a wire junkie would probably not experience as many side effects as a regular
junkie, (for example, their
liver would probably be much healthier) the stimulation would still cause an alteration of brain function which could lead to anything from
irregular heartbeat to
seizures to
psycotic behavior.
Michael Crichton depicts such a case of psycotic breakdown from electrical stimulation in the novel
Terminal Man, which is about a man who has electrodes inserted in his brain to stop seizures. Unfortunatly, the plesure center simulation they use is too strong, and he starts causing seisures more frequently to get the stimulation.