Understanding Perception, Cognition, and Action in Health and Disease

The goal of the Eye Movements GRS is to encourage the sharing of cutting edge research in an informal environment, networking and collaboration among graduate and postdoctoral trainees. The theme of the 2025 meeting, “Eye Movements: Understanding perception, cognition, and action in health and disease”, overlaps with the GRC to facilitate trainee participation at the main meeting. The meeting will comprise three scientific sessions with contributed talks, two poster sessions, and will conclude with a mentorship session.

To ensure broad and diverse participation, trainees will be encouraged to submit abstracts covering a broad range of eye movement research. To be considered for a contributed talk, abstract submissions are requested 3 months before the meeting (March 30, 2025). Speakers will be selected by the GRS program committee, which is composed of senior PhD students and postdocs from diverse research areas that have previously participated in at least one GRS/GRC, led by the current GRS chairs. Specific session titles and themes will be selected to best represent the submitted abstracts. Once titles and themes have been identified by the GRS program committee, the GRS chairs will choose expert early career investigators at the postdoc level in the topic to serve as discussion leaders. Discussion leaders and the GRS chairs will highlight the thematic links between the scientific programs of the GRS and GRC. Posters will be presented during two poster sessions and all GRS attendees are invited to also present their posters at the GRC.

The mentorship session will allow trainees to learn from a diverse range of professionals who pursued successful careers in different areas within or outside of academia. The mentorship panel for 2025 is titled “Work-Life Balance in Academia and Industry” and will cover a range of topics related to starting a family and a career in academia and moving from academia to industry. The panel will be moderated by a selected attendee of the GRS, and participants will be encouraged to ask questions and contribute to the general discussion.