How to Write the Abstract for the AAN Neuroscience Research Prize

By Dr. Harman Brah, MD · Judge, California Science & Engineering Fair

Write an abstract of no more than 300 words that tells a neuroscience judge, on its own, what question you asked, why it matters for the brain or nervous system, what you did, what you found and what it means. Every application is judged on the abstract alone in round one, so it has to make the whole case without the report beside it.

The student writes it. The rules require the application to be the applicant’s own research and the “original written work of the applicant,” and that includes these 300 words.

Why the abstract carries so much weight

The prize, sponsored by the American Academy of Neurology and the Child Neurology Society, is judged in two rounds.

In round one, the panel reads only the abstract. The top applications then move to round two, where the full application gets a review, and four winners are chosen.

That means the research report, however strong, only matters if the abstract earns it a reading. A great project with a vague abstract can stop at round one.

Who is reading it

The judges are physicians and scientists who do neuroscience research at U.S. academic institutions.

They know the field. They will notice a claim about a disorder that goes further than the data, and they will notice when the methods are too thin to judge.

They have also never met you. Nothing in your head reaches them unless it is on the page.

What the 300 words must say

Each part below gets a sentence or two. If one is missing, a judge has to guess, and judges do not guess in your favor.

The question. State the one question you set out to answer, in plain words, near the top. One clear question with real data is stronger than an ambitious project with no result.

Why it matters for the brain or nervous system. Give the reason a neuroscientist should care. Keep it to the gap your project addresses, without a long background section.

What you did. Name the method, the data or participants, and the comparison or control. A judge should be able to tell whether the design was sound. Controls and honest statistics are where many projects lose points, so say what you compared against.

What you found. Give the actual result. A line promising that results will be discussed later tells the judge nothing.

What it means, and its limits. Say what the result suggests and what it does not show. Then name the next thing you would test.

Habits that make an abstract stand alone

Write it last. Finish the report first, then compress it. An abstract written before the results are in tends to promise more than the project delivers.

Cut the jargon you would have to explain out loud. If a term needs a sentence of definition, either define it briefly or use a plainer word.

Match the claim to the data. Neuroscience topics often touch on illness. Describe what your data show, and avoid wording that suggests a diagnosis or treatment the project did not test.

Count the words. The limit is 300. Do not plan on squeezing in a few more.

Test it on a cold reader. Give the abstract, without the report, to someone outside the project. Ask them to tell you what you studied, how and what you found. Wherever they stumble, rewrite.

Where a mentor fits, and where they do not

A teacher may guide the project, and the rules expect that teacher to leave room for the student’s own creativity. A mentor signs the application, along with a parent or guardian and a teacher.

A physician mentor can pressure-test the clinical framing: whether a claim about a condition holds up, whether the limits are stated honestly, whether a neurologist would read it the way the student intends.

The student still writes every word. A mentor can ask questions and point to the weak sentence; the fix has to come from the student.

This also helps later. A student who wrote their own abstract can explain each choice in it, and judges reward a student who can say why each choice was made.

If the same project goes to a science fair

Many students enter the same neuroscience project at a science fair. ISEF-affiliated fairs use a separate abstract with a 250-word maximum, so the AAN version will need to be cut down before it can be reused there.

ISEF rules also do not allow students to use generative AI to write the abstract. That fits the AAN rules too, since the written work has to be the student’s own.

Timing

The 2026 cycle closed on October 20, 2026, and applicants should hear by the end of January 2027. The next cycle has not been posted yet.

That gives a student time to finish the research and the report, then write the abstract with care, rather than drafting it in the final week.

Our physician-led mentors help students sharpen the question, the methods and the framing while the student does the research and the writing. See our science fair and research mentorship, or read about doing high school research without a lab.

FAQ

How long can the AAN Neuroscience Research Prize abstract be?

No more than 300 words. It is submitted with the application form, a research report, a bibliography and the required e-signatures.

Do the judges read the research report in round one?

No. Every application is judged on the abstract alone in round one. Only the top applications get a full review of the whole application in round two.

Can a mentor or parent help my child write the abstract?

A mentor or teacher can guide the student and give feedback, but the abstract and the report have to be the student’s own written work. The student should do the writing and the rewriting.

Can my child reuse a science fair abstract for the AAN prize?

The project can be the same, but the abstract usually needs reworking. An ISEF-affiliated fair caps its abstract at 250 words, while the AAN limit is 300, and the AAN abstract has to stand alone for a panel of neuroscience researchers.

When should my child start writing the abstract?

After the research and report are done. The next cycle has not been posted, so there is time to finish the work first and write the abstract last.