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.

5,456 papers of 8,653 · showing 1–50Sort 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
    PDF ↗
  3. 2026
    Distilling Image Prototypes for Guided Test-Time AdaptationLiwen Wang, Xingbo Dong, Iman Yi Liao … Zhe JinarXiv
    PDF ↗
  4. 2026
    AdalReID: Auto-selected Knowledge Adapters for Lifelong Person Re-identification.Xue-Lin Qian, Rui-Qi Wu, Zhong-Ling Huang … Junwei HanTPAMI
  5. 2026
    Hyperspherical semantic compensation of vision-language models for continual learningHongsheng Zhang, Zhong Ji, Chen Tang, Yanwei PangKnowledge-Based Systems · Tianjin University · Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence · +1
  6. 2026PDF ↗
  7. 2026
    Mitigating Performance Discrepancy in Cross-Domain 3D Class-Incremental LearningJinge Ma, Gautham Vinod, Bruce Coburn … Fengqing ZhuarXiv
    PDF ↗
  8. 2026
    EvoHarnessBench: Can Your Agents Keep Pace with an Evolving Harness?Zixuan Ke, Vaidehi Patil, Haizhou Shi … Shafiq JotyarXiv
    PDF ↗
  9. 2026
    Robust adaptation of visual representations for few-shot class-incremental learning via geometric calibrationTao Zhang, C.L. Philip Chen, Xiwen Luo … Jiehao LiPattern Recognition · South China University of Technology · South China Agricultural University · +1
  10. 2026
    Towards Understanding Pause Token Fine-Tuning Dynamics: A Mode Retention PerspectiveJaehyeon Kim, Suhwan Kim, Nakyung Lee … Jungwoo LeearXiv
    PDF ↗
  11. 2026
    A scalable complexity-regularized modular network for continual learningZiye Fang, Bo Wan, Shangqi Guo, Jian K. LiuNeurocomputing · Xidian University · Human Computer Interaction (Switzerland) · +2
  12. 2026
    Emergence of Fibrations, Compression, and Symmetry Breaking in Artificial Neural NetworksOsvaldo Matías Velarde, Lucas C. Parra, Alireza Hashemi, Hernan A MaksearXiv
    PDF ↗
  13. 2026
    Learning Without Forgetting for Continual Learning in LLMs Through Adaptive LoRA RanksFuli Qiao, Mehrdad MahdaviMachine Learning · Pennsylvania State University
  14. 2026
    Continual learning via semantic memory systemMingsen Luo, Qihe Liu, Fei Ye … Shijie ZhouPattern Recognition · University of Electronic Science and Technology of China · University of York
  15. 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
    PDF ↗
  16. 2026
    Continual learning via dynamic expandable task-specific and general representationsQihe Liu, yongcheng zhong, Fei Ye … ShiJie ZhouKnowledge-Based Systems · University of Electronic Science and Technology of China · University of York
  17. 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
    PDF ↗
  18. 2026
    Fast Weight Attention for Continual LearningYifan Zhang, Steve Ta, Jasper Zhang … Andrew Chi-Chih YaoarXiv
    PDF ↗
  19. 2026
    Thomson: Continual Learning of Frontier Models for SovereignAIShengzhuang Chen, Jerrod Parker, Yejin Bang … Jonathan Richard SchwarzarXiv
    PDF ↗
  20. 2026
    A Visual Dependence-Aware Framework for Multimodal Unsupervised Continual Post-TrainingKaichen Li, Zhilin Zhu, Jianhao Huang … Changsheng XuarXiv
    PDF ↗
  21. 2026
    Complementary Asymmetric Representation Learning for Exemplar-Free Class-Incremental LearningRunhang Chen, Xiao‐Yuan Jing, Xiaodong JiaACM Transactions · Wuhan University · Henan University of Engineering · +2
  22. 2026
    Lost but not erased: Finding traces of a forgotten language in neural speech modelsPeter Plantinga, Charlotte Moore, Peter Donhauser … Denise KleinarXiv
    PDF ↗
  23. 2026PDF ↗
  24. 2026
    Few-shot, continual learning for spiking neuromorphic olfactionKevin Max, Yang ShenNeuromorphic Computing and Engineering · Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
    PDF ↗
  25. 2026
    MCo2L: A unified framework for multimodal contrastive continual learning in audio-visual question answeringKunning Wu, Xinde Li, Xinde Li … Jin DengNeurocomputing · Southeast University · Northeastern University
  26. 2026
    TASSO: TAsk-Specific Subspace Optimization for Continual Learning of Vision-Language ModelsChang Sun, Francesco Barbato, Matteo Caligiuri, Pietro ZanuttigharXiv
    PDF ↗
  27. 2026
    An Inclusive and Lightweight Approach to Federated Continual Learning for Cultural HeritageIoannis Theologitis, Debin Meng, Stylianos Eleftheriadis … Konstantinos VotisarXiv
    PDF ↗
  28. 2026
    Forgetting, plasticity, and co-observation: a third facet of continual learningTimm Hess, Abhishek Jha, Gido M. van de Ven, Tinne TuytelaarsarXiv
    PDF ↗
  29. 2026
    HiCPS: Hierarchical complementary prompt synergy for few-shot class-incremental learningQiang Huang, Shengli Wu, Shaohua Wan … Hu LuNeurocomputing · Jiangsu University · University of Ulster · +4
  30. 2026PDF ↗
  31. 2026
    Layers Matter: Why Continual Learning Regularization Should Be Layer-AdaptiveBrian B. Moser, Ahmed Anwar, Tobias Christian Nauen … Andreas DengelarXiv
    PDF ↗
  32. 2026
    Memory-Bounded Continuation of Greedy Sampling for Continual Anomaly DetectionYoon Gyo Jung, Jaewoo Park, Kuan–Chuan Peng … OCTAVIA CAMPSarXiv
    PDF ↗
  33. 2026
    Compact feature distributions and refined pseudo labels for weakly supervised incremental semantic segmentationZilin Guo, Dongyue Wu, Changxin Gao, Nong SangPattern Recognition · Huazhong University of Science and Technology
  34. 2026
  35. 2026
    SRANK: Towards Semantic-Aware Ranking-Based Evaluation for Continual Learning of Vision-Language ModelsSuvam Dey, Debarshi Brahma, Soma BiswasICIP · Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
  36. 2026PDF ↗
  37. 2026
    Quantum Incremental Learning with Mixed State PrototypesYu Wu, Qianli Zhou, Xinyang Deng … Witold PedryczarXiv
    PDF ↗
  38. 2026
    Hyperbolic Multimodal Continual LearningJiahong Liu, Ming Shen, Xiaohao Liu … Irwin KingICML
    PDF ↗
  39. 2026PDF ↗
  40. 2026
    MEMTS: Internalizing Domain Knowledge via Parameterized Memory for Retrieval-Free Domain Adaptation of Time Series Foundation ModelsXiaoyun Yu, Li Fan, Xiangfei Qiu … Jilin HuKDD · East China Normal University · Shanghai Innovative Research Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine · +3
    PDF ↗
  41. 2026
    Brain-Inspired Synergistic-Memory Prompt Tuning for Few-Shot Class-Incremental LearningJiale Chen, Feng Xu, Xin Lyu … Hao TangInformation Fusion · Hohai University · Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  42. 2026
    Continual-GraphLLM: Dynamic Graph Large Language Model with Invariance Regularized Adaptive Multi-Scale ExpertsTianhang Wan, Xin Wang, Haibo Chen … Wenwu ZhuKDD · Tsinghua University · Alibaba Group (China)
  43. 2026
    PrePrompt: Predictive Prompting for Class Incremental LearningLibo Huang, Xiangqi Li, Jiarui Zhao … Yongjun XuKDD · Chinese Academy of Sciences · Institute of Computing Technology · +2
    PDF ↗
  44. 2026
    TRACE: Discovering Task-Specific Parameter via Adaptation-Aware Probing for Continual Fine-TuningXiaosong Han, Ke Chen, Xindi Dai … Renchu GuanKDD · Jilin University · Jilin Province Science and Technology Department · +3
    PDF ↗
  45. 2026
    Cognitive Bifurcation: Dual-Progressive Causal Diffusion with Hippocampal Memory for Continual Graph LearningJiahao Liang, Carl Yang, Haoran Yang … Kaixiang YangKDD · South China University of Technology · Emory University · +2
  46. 2026
    Collaborative Knowledge Extraction and Integration for Graph Domain Incremental LearningJialu Li, Yu Wang, Wanyu Lin, Pengfei ZhuKDD · Tianjin University · Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  47. 2026
    FAT-TAG: Mitigating Forgetting in Task-Free Temporal Graph Class Incremental LearningJiyuan Feng, Zhao Liu, Dongyi Zheng … Qing LiaoKDD · Harbin Institute of Technology · Peng Cheng Laboratory · +1
  48. 2026
    FedFST: Mitigating Spectral Catastrophic Forgetting in Federated Graph Continual LearningHanyao Guo, Zihan Tan, Wenke Huang … Mang YeKDD · Wuhan University · Nanyang Technological University
  49. 2026
    G2LoRA: Gradient Orthogonal Low-Rank Adaptation Framework for Graph Continual Learning on Text-Attributed GraphsYuhan Wang, Yibo Ding, Yutong Ye … Jianxin LiKDD · Beihang University · Columbia University · +1
    PDF ↗
  50. 2026
    An active-learning framework for real-time depth perception from monocular vision streamsXiaorong Zeng, Weiqiang Chen, Peng Shi … Shuiwen ShenarXiv
    PDF ↗
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.