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Abstract Submission

The Social and Affective Neuroscience Society invites submission of research abstracts for its 2026 Annual Conference to be held in San Diego, California, USA from April 15-18, 2026. All submissions will be evaluated by the Scientific Program Committee.

The 2026 SANS Conference – Call for abstracts is

NOW OPEN

All current and prospective members of the SANS community are encouraged to submit an abstract to present as either an individual poster or oral presentation at the 2026 Conference.

Submissions must be made through the online submission portal and submitted before the deadline of 23:59 (Pacific Time) on Monday, January 12, 2026.

Submit Abstract - Member
Submit Abstract - Non-Member

Poster & Oral Submission Guidelines

You have the options to submit your abstract as an Oral and/or Poster as well as the option to submit as a member or a non-member. Once you log in to your SANS Conference Manager Dashboard, you can select from one of two forms:

    1. Member: you can submit with the $30 USD submission fee. To become a member, visit the Membership Page for more information on how to RENEW or ENROLL.
    2. Non-member: you can submit with the $75 USD submission fee.

Your abstract should be between 200 – 500 words (up to 3500 characters including spaces) and should include the following sections (identify section headers as follows):

    • BACKGROUND AND AIMS
    • METHODS
    • RESULTS
    • CONCLUSIONS
    • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND FUNDING

You may also upload figures, images or tables using the upload feature.

To submit your abstract, please be prepared to provide the following information:

    • Your contact name, affiliation/institution name, and email address (please note authors may specify only one affiliation)
    • Enter all contributing authors in the order they should appear in the program. Please note – author names and affiliations will appear in the program EXACTLY as they are entered into the submission form.
    • Prepare an abstract title (max 250 character limit).
    • Prepare the abstract (max 3500 character limit, including spaces).
    • Select 2 keywords relating to TOPIC and 2 keywords relating to METHODS associated with the submission.
      • Topic keywords are preceded with a T.
      • Methods keywords are preceded with an M.
        Select keywords carefully as they will be used to match your submission with reviewers from our Abstract Review Board.
      • Use standard abbreviations for units of measure. Other abbreviations should be fully spelled out on the first mention, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.
      • If you wish to copy and paste your abstract, please ensure it is in basic text format. Once your abstract is entered in the text box, you can format as needed. All abstracts must be submitted via the text box provided.

    By submitting an abstract, you agree to present at the Annual Conference, should your abstract be selected for the program.

    We are continuing our Open Science initiative of offering poster submissions for preregistration summaries of analyses of completed or soon-to-be-completed datasets. You will have two options during the submission of your abstract when providing the abstract summary:

    * Standard submission: A standard abstract for data analysis that has already been completed for the study. The abstract should state the study’s objective, briefly describe the methods used, summarize the results obtained, and state the conclusions. Ideally, these sections will be indicated explicitly. Abstracts should emphasize the significance of results and general principles rather than describe common methods and procedures.

    * Pre-registration: Abstract for a study that you plan to conduct (or have collected already but not analyzed), and pre-register your hypotheses & data analysis plans. The abstract should state the study’s objective, describe the methods and analysis plans for each hypothesis, and discuss the general implications of the study. The data analysis should be completed before the conference to include the results and conclusion in the presentation.

Abstract Submission Themes

Keywords for Topics:

  • Basic Affect/Emotion
  • Clinical Disorders
  • Decision-Making
  • Development
  • Emotion Perception/Communication
  • Emotion Regulation
  • Intergroup Processes
  • Language/Interpersonal Communication
  • Learning
  • Memory
  • Prosocial Behavior
  • Reward & Motivation
  • Self
  • Social Cognition
  • Stress
  • Threat Processing

Keywords for Methods:

  • Bayesian Modeling
  • Benchmarking
  • Computational Models
  • EEG/ERP
  • ESM/EMA
  • fMRI
  • fNIRS
  • MEG
  • Methods Development
  • Naturalistic methods
  • Network Science
  • Neural networks/LLMs
  • PET
  • Pharmacology
  • Physiological Measures
  • Reinforcement learning
  • Structural MRI/DTI
  • tDCS/rTMS

Travel Awards

We are happy to announce that The Social & Affective Neuroscience Society (SANS) will offer TEN (10) travel awards ($500 each) for this year’s conference.

Awards are only being considered for first authors of conference abstract submissions.

To promote equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice (EDIJ), these funds will be awarded to students and scholars from underrepresented groups in our society. Furthermore, the society will offer opportunities for grant awardees to meet and interact with PIs who share similar scientific interests. 

Award Eligibility: To be considered, applicants must meet the below criteria:

    1. Must be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program or be engaged in postdoctoral studies.
    2. Must be a student or postdoc member of SANS in good standing.
    3. Must have an abstract accepted for presentation.
    4. Must attend the SANS 2026 Conference.
    5. Must identify as being a member of a group that is underrepresented in social and/or affective neuroscience.

To apply for a Travel Award, choose the award option within the Abstract submission form