The Consciousness, Anesthesia and Evolutionary Biology GRS provides a unique forum for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers to present their work, discuss new methods, cutting edge ideas, and pre-published data, as well as to build collaborative relationships with their peers. Experienced mentors and trainee moderators will facilitate active participation in scientific discussion to allow all attendees to be engaged participants rather than spectators.
With the perspective that consciousness science may not yet have found the explanatory framework that will ultimately prove most fruitful, this meeting aims to serve as catalyst for the synergistic and free exchange of ideas among the next generation of scientists to inherit this problem, in an atmosphere of open-mindedness, creativity, rigor, and mutual respect.
This meeting will focus on highlighting causal mechanisms that contribute to conscious states and experiences. Animals have evolved many similar sensory modalities and conscious states, as well as others that are unique and potentially adapted to their environments (e.g. torpor, hemisphere-localized sleep). Comparing similarities and differences of anatomical and functional features across the tree of life offers a powerful conceptual framework for understanding the evolutionary origins of consciousness, as well as for identifying the causal mechanisms that generate conscious states and experiences.
To this end, we welcome presentations that highlight cross-species comparisons or underrepresented models in consciousness research, as well as those that track mechanisms in these systems across a variety of scales (molecular, genetic, cellular, and systems), manipulations (general anesthesia, psychedelics, neuromodulation), and models of health and disease. We welcome presentations from diverse perspectives, but encourage them to be self-contained and mechanistically focused, not relying upon prior subscription to a supervening theory of consciousness (e.g. Global Neuronal Workspace, Integrated Information Theory). This will support a key goal of the meeting: fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and mentorship by emphasizing substantive conversation and connection amongst attendees. Conference activities will include a keynote lecture, oral presentations, poster sessions, and ample discussion. Please contact the co-chairs with any questions. We look forward to welcoming you in Galveston.
Application Instructions
The seminar will feature approximately 10 talks and 2 poster sessions. All attendees are expected to actively participate in the GRS, either by giving an oral presentation or presenting a poster. Therefore, all applications must include an abstract.
The seminar chair will select speakers from abstracts submitted by October 11, 2026. Those applicants who are not chosen for talks and those who apply after the deadline to be considered for an oral presentation will be expected to present a poster. In order to participate, you must submit an application by the date indicated in the Application Information section above.
Program Format
Gordon Research Seminars are 2-day meetings which take place on the Saturday and Sunday just prior to the start of the associated GRC. The GRS opens with a 1-hour introductory session on Saturday afternoon, followed by a poster session, dinner and a 2-hour session in the evening. Sunday morning begins with breakfast and is followed by another 2-hour session, a second poster session, and lunch. A final 1-hour session takes place just after lunch, and the associated GRC begins later that evening.
