Who Owns French Brain Science? Neurophysiologists' Response to Cyberneticians in the 1950s French National Daily Press.

This paper examines the contested reception of cybernetics in 1950s France, focusing on how French neurophysiologists strategically engaged with cybernetic metaphors to assert disciplinary authority over the study of the brain. While early press enthusiasm embraced cybernetic analogies, figures like Alfred Fessard and Henri Gastaut leveraged public debate to promote a neurophysiology grounded in experimental rigor and national scientific traditions. Tracing key moments in press discourse, scientific symposia, and institutional developments, the paper argues that French neurophysiologists helped shape a new science of the brain-not by rejecting cybernetics outright but by reframing it within their epistemological and professional priorities.