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This process is studied through a diverse array of perspectives spanning different species, sensory systems, levels of analysis, and methodological frameworks. Here, we present four such perspectives. Two of them approach the problem from the bottom, examining the neural substrates of the biological implementation. The first line describes implicit contextual learning in the rodent auditory midbrain, showing how neuronal frequency tuning adapts to predictable statistical regularities over days. The second line shows that explicit knowledge modulates belief updating as early as the human auditory midbrain and thalamus, revealing a functionally specialized subcortical inferential hierarchy. The other two research lines approach it from the top, examining the computations the brain performs. The third line compares statistical computations across species and human development, uncovering fundamental differences in probabilistic chunking strategies between honeybees, human infants, and adults. The fourth line provides a computational framework for continual learning in which experience is organized into structured internal models through ongoing contextual inference. We then examine what each line can contribute to the others. We argue that, if the brain evolved statistical learning under pressure to behave optimally, this optimality must have been achieved globally through the constraints and synergies that emerge from the interplay between subsystems and levels of analysis. The neuronal mechanisms implementing a computation are shaped by the computation they perform, while that computation is itself constrained by the available physiology: a mutual dependence that can only be understood by bridging across perspectives.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1111\/ejn.70712","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]],"date-time":"2026-10-21T14:29:57Z","timestamp":1792592997000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Structuring the World: Statistical Learning From the Top and From the Bottom"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"64","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8643-1543","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alejandro","family":"Tabas","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language  Donostia\u2010San Sebastian Spain"},{"name":"Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences  Leipzig Germany"},{"name":"Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science  Bilbao Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7064-0690","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"J\u00f3zsef","family":"Fiser","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cognitive Science Central European University  Vienna Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7266-0049","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"M\u00e1t\u00e9","family":"Lengyel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cognitive Science Central European University  Vienna Austria"},{"name":"Department of Engineering University of Cambridge  Cambridge UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5782-1120","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Livia","family":"de Hoz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience University of Cambridge  Cambridge UK"},{"name":"Neuroscience Research Center Charit\u00e9 Universit\u00e4tsmedizin Berlin  Berlin Germany"},{"name":"Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience  Berlin Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]]},"reference":[{"issue":"8","key":"e_1_2_14_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1093\/cercor\/bhae316","article-title":"Cortical\u2013Subcortical Interactions Underlie Processing of Auditory Predictions Measured With 7T fMRI","volume":"34","author":"Ara A.","year":"2024","journal-title":"Cerebral Cortex"},{"issue":"2","key":"e_1_2_14_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"201","DOI":"10.1038\/s41593-021-01007-z","article-title":"Mice Alternate Between Discrete Strategies During Perceptual Decision\u2010Making","volume":"25","author":"Ashwood Z. 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