Cybernetics, the study and comparison of the way in which animals and machines control their movements and internal functions. The study involves analyzing how automation devices (such as thermostats and computers) and the nervous system (in particular the brain) receive, process, and transmit information. Cybernetics has helped both in understanding the nervous system and in improving automation devices. The term cybernetics was first used in the 1940's by Norbert Wiener, a professor of mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.