Related work

The foundational work on continual learning, 1980 to 2026: methods, theory, benchmarks, surveys, and the neuroscience of memory. Updated weekly; some carry our notes.

29 papers of 8,653Sort Recent · Most cited
  1. 2026
    Discrete synaptic states and context-modulated readouts support continual learningYuan Gao, Ştefan Mihalaş, Denis TurcubioRxiv · University of Washington · Allen Institute
  2. 2026
    Plateau-gated one-shot plasticity supports continual recognition memoryGuanchun Li, Sandro Romani, Jeffrey C. MageebioRxiv · Howard Hughes Medical Institute · Janelia Research Campus
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  3. 2026
    Structural generalization and continual learning enabled by factorized entorhinal-hippocampal memory and entorhinal-parietal action circuitsJaedong Hwang, Sujaya Neupane, Mehrdad Jazayeri, Ila FietebioRxiv · McGovern Institute for Brain Research · Coherent (United States) · +1
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  4. 2026
    A complementary learning system for continual episodic memory in large language modelsXu Pan, Ely Hahami, Roy Siegelmann, Haim SompolinskybioRxiv · Harvard University Press · Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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  5. 2026
    Mistake gating leads to energy and memory efficient continual learningAaron Pache, Mark C. W. van RossumbioRxiv · University of Nottingham
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  6. 2026
    Training constrains neural routes to knowledge assemblyQiyao Wang, Compton French, Pooja Bansiya … Stephanie NellibioRxiv · Occidental College
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  7. 2026
    Learning sculpts orthogonal task manifolds for continual skill learning in recurrent networksZihan Liu, Anno C. Kurth, Yuma Osako, Toshitake AsabukibioRxiv · Chinese University of Hong Kong · RIKEN Center for Brain Science · +2
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  8. 2025
    Hippocampal indexing alters the stability landscape of synaptic weight space allowing life-long learningOscar C. González, Ryan Golden, Erik Delanois … Maxim BazhenovbioRxiv · University of Colorado Boulder · University of California San Diego · +3
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  9. 2025
    Rapidly Reconfigurable Dynamic Computing in Neural Networks with Fixed Synaptic ConnectivityK. O. Mason, Sonia Sennik, Claudia Clopath … Wilten NicolabioRxiv · University of Calgary · Creative Destruction Lab · +1
  10. 2025
    Ca2+ Plateau Potentials Reflect Cross-Theta Cortico-Hippocampal Input Dynamics and Acetylcholine for Rapid Formation of Efficient Place-Cell CodeHanying Wang, Ying-Chieh Hsu, Hsuan-Pei Huang … Ching-Lung HsubioRxiv · Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica · University of Ottawa
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  11. 2025
    Memory-specific E-I balance supports diverse replay and mitigates catastrophic forgettingTomáš Bárta, Tomoki FukaibioRxiv · Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
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  12. 2025
    Interleaved Replay of Novel and Familiar Memory Traces During Slow-Wave Sleep Prevents Catastrophic ForgettingRyan Golden, Rajat Saxena, Oscar C. González … Maxim BazhenovbioRxiv · University of California San Diego · University of California, Irvine · +2
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  13. 2025
    Neural signatures of motor memories emerge in neural network modelsJoanna Chang, Claudia Clopath, Juan Álvaro GallegobioRxiv · Imperial College London
  14. 2025
    A canonical cortical electronic circuit for neuromorphic intelligenceMaryada Maryada, Chiara De Luca, Arianna Rubino … Giacomo IndiveribioRxiv · SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics · University of Zurich · +3
  15. 2025
    An invariant schema emerges within a neural network during hierarchical learning of visual boundariesJames T. Elder, Jie Zheng, Lydia B. Shimelis … Milo M. LinbioRxiv · Center for Systems Biology · The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center · +5
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  16. 2024
    Stability through plasticity: Finding robust memories through representational driftMaanasa Natrajan, James E. FitzgeraldbioRxiv · Northwestern University · Howard Hughes Medical Institute · +3
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  17. 2025
    Mental Schema Reduces Cognitive Load and Facilitates Emergence of Novel Responses in Mice and Artificial Neural NetworksVikram Singh, Shruti Shridhar, Shankanava Kundu … J. BalajibioRxiv · Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
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  18. 2022
    Fast adaptation to rule switching using neuronal surpriseMartin Barry, Wulfram GerstnerbioRxiv · École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
  19. 2022
    Memory Consolidation with Orthogonal Gradients for avoiding Catastrophic ForgettingTamizharasan Kanagamani, Rupak Krishnamurthy, V. Srinivasa Chakravarthy … Ramshekhar N. MenonbioRxiv · Indian Institute of Technology Madras · Robert Bosch (India) · +1
  20. 2021
    Beyond gradients: Factorized, geometric control of interference and generalizationDavid M. Scott, Michael J. FrankbioRxiv · Brown University · Allen Institute for Brain Science
  21. 2021
    Going Beyond the Point Neuron: Active Dendrites and Sparse Representations for Continual LearningKaran Grewal, Jérémy Forest, Benjamin P. Cohen, Subutai AhmadbioRxiv · Numerica Corporation (United States) · Lumentum (United States)
  22. 2021
    A Biologically Plausible Model for Continual Learning using Synaptic Weight AttractorsRomik Ghosh, D. Mastrovito, Ştefan MihalaşbioRxiv · Ohio University · Allen Institute · +3
  23. 2021
    Presynaptic stochasticity improves energy efficiency and helps alleviate the stability-plasticity dilemmaSimon Schug, Frederik Benzing, Angelika StegerbioRxiv · SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics · University of Zurich · +1
  24. 2021
    Meta-learning local synaptic plasticity for continual familiarity detectionDanil Tyulmankov, Guangyu Robert Yang, L. F. AbbottbioRxiv · Columbia University
  25. 2020
    The hippocampal formation as a hierarchical generative model supporting generative replay and continual learningIvilin Peev Stoianov, Domenico Maisto, Giovanni PezzulobioRxiv · National Research Council · Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies
  26. 2019
    Interleaved training prevents catastrophic forgetting in spiking neural networksRyan Golden, Jean Erik Delanois, Pavel Šanda, Maxim BazhenovbioRxiv · University of California San Diego · Czech Academy of Sciences · +1
  27. 2019
    Synaptic weight decay with selective consolidation enables fast learning without catastrophic forgettingPascal Leimer, Michael H. Herzog, Walter SennbioRxiv · University of Bern · École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
  28. 2018
    A Neural Model of Schemas and Memory ConsolidationTiffany Hwu, Jeffrey L. KrichmarbioRxiv · University of California, Irvine
  29. 2018
    Focused learning promotes continual task performance in humansTimo Flesch, Jan Balaguer, Ronald Dekker … Christopher SummerfieldbioRxiv · University of Oxford · Science Oxford
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About this index

We keep this list because we read the field and wanted one place to see it. It covers work on continual learning itself, in the core areas of machine learning, and leaves out papers that apply it inside another field, such as medical imaging or fault diagnosis. By default it shows the papers we have a reason to trust: published at a venue like NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR or TPAMI, or written by someone who has published there, or cited a few hundred times. The rest are one click away under “All papers”. It is seeded from the community lists kept by ContinualAI and by Xialei Liu, then filled out from OpenAlex, and every week a script looks for new papers on OpenAlex and arXiv. A model reads each candidate and decides whether it belongs; a person reviews the additions before they go live. Authors and affiliations come from OpenAlex, so a recent preprint can lack its institutions for a week or two.

Missing something, or filed under the wrong venue? Write to hello@unify.ai with the arXiv id or DOI.