In the sci-fi book 'A deepness in the sky' by Vernor Vinge, zipheads are 'focused' persons in that they are utterly loyal and willing slaves whose attention can be focused on any facet of their
personality to serve the needs of the
controlling person. For example, a brilliant person can be turned into an utter genius. The ziphead will no longer have any free will and do not care, the slightest bit, about the things unrelated to what they were focussed into. They will become highly agitated and violent if not allowed to do what they were focussed to do.
'Focus' is a tailored
infection of the ziphead's brain by a special virus which can be controlled using MRI.
Characters in the novel who were
focused (or who were zipheadized)
Ali Lin: A good park
designer who became a park designing genius.
Trixia Bonsol: A
linguist who became a genius at it.