Temporal spacing of stimuli as a principle of predictive learning

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 12 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-025-02175-y

Learning depends not only on how often stimuli are experienced but also on how they are spaced in time. Burke et al. show that infrequent, well-spaced stimuli enhance predictive learning, revealing how dopamine signaling and temporal organization shape the brain’s ability to extract causal structure from experience.