Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was the original version of changing brain activity via electrical stimulation. The approach, which induces a seizure across the full cortex in an anesthetized patient, might be akin to rebooting a computer. Of course, ECT, first introduced in 1938, preceded the modern era of medications and psychological treatments and certainly preceded the computer age. But I have never heard a better explanation for how ECT works than this metaphor of rebooting.
