Local Learning

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Overview

Local learning studies how neural systems can learn from nearby activity, targets, or errors rather than sending exact gradients through an entire network; this can reduce memory and communication and may better suit brains, physical devices, and edge hardware. Common approaches include Hebbian and spike-timing-dependent plasticity, predictive coding and equilibrium propagation, Forward-Forward and target-propagation rules, and blockwise local objectives for recurrent networks and Transformers. Evaluations span image tasks such as CIFAR and ImageNet, sequence modeling, spiking and event-based sensing, continual learning, and physical or analog systems, while theory explores when local updates can approximate backpropagation. The central tension is that locality can improve parallelism, memory use, and hardware practicality, but local objectives may lose accuracy or representation quality at depth, making strong benchmarks and fair comparisons with optimized backpropagation important.

Latest papers

CardsList

52 papers7 papers in the last four weeks, level with the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

  1. SpatialPC: Deep Computation with Sublinear Local Credit Propagation

    Oct 26, 2026Benjamin Prada, Shion Matsumoto, Ankur Arjun MaliLocal LearningFine-Grained Credit Assignment

    Trustworthy Knowledge-Driven AI Lab Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing University of South Florida Tampa, FL 33620

  2. ENCL: Enabling Efficient Neuromorphic Continual Learning with Local Learning Rule and Sub-Network Freezing Strategy

    Oct 22, 2026Rachmad Vidya Wicaksana Putra, Shuochen Zhou, Hassan Raza +1Energy-Efficient MLLocal Learning

    eBRAIN Lab, New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

  3. Local proxies for memory-efficient training

    Oct 16, 2026Wu S. Zihan, Brian A. Yuan, Guillaume BellecLocal LearningMemory-Efficient Training

    Machine Learning Research TU Wien Vienna, Austria

  4. LocalTrain: Integer-Only Local Learning for Energy-Efficient CNN Training on Edge FPGAs

    Oct 12, 2026Shiqi Ding, Xuanyu Liang, Xinyang Liu +4On-Device TrainingEnergy-Efficient ML

    University of Cambridge · University College London · University of Bristol

  5. Rescuing Points Trapped Inside Incorrect Decision Regions: A target for Evaluating and Improving Forward-Forward Learning

    Oct 12, 2026Alireza Rahmansetayesh, Amirhossein Yousefiramandi, Maxwell Spiridonov +3Decision Boundary AnalysisForward-Forward Learning

    Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA · Independent Researcher

  6. Greedy Local Learning for Language Model Pretraining: Gaps and Objective Design

    Oct 4, 2026Jihwan Moon, Sheir A. Zaheer, Jinmyoung Lee +2Local LearningLanguage Model Pretraining

    INFOCZ Inc. · Seoul National University · KC ML2

  7. Learning While Inferring: Local and Parallel Learning for Edge SNNs across Sensing Modalities

    Oct 2, 2026Yanxun Zhang, Yifei Wang, Changze Lv +6Spiking Neural NetworksOn-Device Training

    College of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, Fudan University · Shanghai Key Laboratory of Intelligent Information Processing · School of Software Technology, Zhejiang University

  8. SOLO: Pretraining Billion-Parameter Language Models with Shared-Output Local Learning

    Sep 28, 2026Bojian Yin, Shurong Wang, Yuqi Pan +1Language Model PretrainingEfficient Language Model Training

    Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  9. The Price of Locality: Why Forward-Forward Underperforms Backpropagation?

    Sep 27, 2026Zhaoxian Wu, Haichuan Liu, Tianyi ChenForward-Forward LearningNeural Network Optimization

    Cornell Tech and Cornell University

  10. LocalProp: Neuro-Localized Memory-Efficient Backpropagation

    Sep 26, 2026Diana-Nicoleta Grigore, Iuliana Georgescu, Radu Tudor IonescuLocal LearningBackpropagation

    Department of Computer Science University of Bucharest, Romania

  11. Toward On-Chip Training of Spiking Neural Networks for Dense Event-Based Vision

    Sep 26, 2026Maxime Vaillant, Axel Carlier, Lai Xing Ng +2Spiking Neural NetworksLocal Learning

    CNRS, IPAL IRL 2955, Singapore · Université de Toulouse, IRIT, France · Institute for Infocomm Research, A*STAR, Singapore +2

  12. Analog-Friendly Predictive Coding without Activation Derivatives

    Sep 26, 2026Francesco InnocentiAnalog ComputingPredictive Coding

    Brain Network Dynamics Unit University of Oxford, UK

  13. The Drift Contract: Spectral Updates for Depth-Robust Local Learning

    Sep 16, 2026Fabien PollySpectral OptimizationLocal Learning

    Independent researcher

  14. Online local learning for generative thermodynamic computing

    Sep 14, 2026Huilin Wang, Weibing DengThermodynamic ComputingLocal Learning

    Key Laboratory of Quark and Lepton Physics (MOE) and Institute of Particle Physics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China

  15. A Study of Hidden-State Optimization Order in Predictive Coding Networks

    Sep 1, 2026Xueyuan Li, Danilo Vasconcellos VargasPredictive CodingNeural Network Optimization

  16. Conservation laws determine what physical learning remembers

    Jul 30, 2026Bijaya DangolEquilibrium PropagationNeural Network Training Dynamics

    1Independent researcher

  17. The Art of Not Forgetting A Local Learning Architecture for Continual Learning

    Jul 29, 2026Ashmith Atmuri, Yashaswini Rao BhogarajulaMemory-Augmented Neural NetworksContinual Learning

    Arkadhi Research

  18. Reconstructing Backpropagation from Forward Fluctuations in Noise-modulated Neural Networks

    Jul 29, 2026Shuhei IkemotoBackpropagationNeuromorphic Computing

    Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu, Japan

  19. The Art of Not Forgetting

    Jul 20, 2026Ashmith Atmuri, Akshay Kumar, Yashaswini Rao BhogarajulaMemory-Augmented Neural NetworksDomain-Incremental Learning

    Arkadhi Labs

  20. Weight Feedback Computes the Jacobian Transpose Locally in Modern Deep Networks

    Jul 15, 2026Junlong Shen, Xingyu LiPredictive CodingLocal Learning

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada · Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), Edmonton, Canada

  21. Architecture Generalization with MetaNCA

    Jul 8, 2026Meet Barot, Daniel Berenberg, Sina KhajehabdollahiNeural Cellular AutomataNeural Network Generalization

    Mythos Scientific, New York, USA · Independent Scholar

  22. Local Pheromone Network: Sparse Local Learning with Multi-Scale Synaptic Trails, Consolidation, and Replay

    Jun 22, 2026Xingcheng Fu, Xianjun Chen, Zhihao LiHebbian LearningContinual Learning

  23. Error Highways: Scaling Predictive Coding to Very Deep Networks

    Jun 22, 2026Amirhossein Mohammadi, Alexander G. OrorbiaPredictive CodingLocal Learning

    SingularityNET Zug, Switzerland · Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY, USA

  24. Noise-Debiased Thermodynamic Variance for Local Learning Coefficient Probes

    Jun 21, 2026Yingjia CaiSingular Learning TheoryNeural Network Training Dynamics

  25. Breaking chains with trees: Deep learning with O(log⁡N)\mathcal{O}(\log N) parallel time complexity

    Jun 19, 2026Neeraj Mohan Sushma, Aditya Nagarsekar, Cabrel Teguemne Fokam +4Deep Learning OptimizationNeural Network Optimization

    Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology, Bielefeld University, Germany · Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany · Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Goa Campus +1

  26. Coercivity and Local Convergence of Physical Learning in Linear Circuits

    Jun 13, 2026Joshua A. McGinnis, Xinbo Li, Yoichiro MoriEquilibrium PropagationOptimization Convergence Analysis

    Department of Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

  27. Synthetic Benchmarks Overstate Forward-Forward Scaling: Real-Data Limits of Layer-Local Training

    Jun 4, 2026Yucheng ChenBackpropagationLocal Learning

    Amplimit Toronto, ON, Canada

  28. FFR: Forward-Forward Learning for Regression

    Jun 2, 2026Xinyang Liu, Xuanyu Liang, Shiqi Ding +4Neural Network OptimizationFeedforward Neural Networks

    University of Bristol · University College London · University of Cambridge

  29. Dynamics and Representation Structure of Local Approximations to Gradient-Based Learning in Linear Recurrent Neural Networks

    May 29, 2026Ezekiel Williams, Alexandre Payeur, Guillaume LajoieTruncated Backpropagation Through TimeRecurrent Neural Networks

    Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Universit´e de Montr´eal, Canada · Mila Qu´ebec, Canada · Imperial College London, United Kingdom

  30. Augmented Lagrangian Predictive Coding

    May 29, 2026Jeffrey Seely, Julian GouldBackpropagationPredictive Coding

    Sakana AI