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Generating Counterfactual Temporal Motifs: Unraveling the Mysteries of Temporal Graph Neural Networks
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Yibowen Zhao1, Yonghui Xu1, Ning Liu1, Lizhen Cui1, Qingzhong Li1
Data Science and Engineering | 2026, 11(1) : 199 - 212
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Data Science and Engineering | 2026, 11(1): 199-212
RESEARCH PAPERS
Generating Counterfactual Temporal Motifs: Unraveling the Mysteries of Temporal Graph Neural Networks
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Yibowen Zhao1, Yonghui Xu1, Ning Liu1, Lizhen Cui1, Qingzhong Li1
Affiliations
  • 1School of Software & Joint SDU-NTU Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
  • Yibowen Zhao 

    Qingzhong Li 

Published: 2026-03-01 doi: 10.1007/s41019-025-00321-x
Outline
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Temporal Graph Neural Networks (TGNNs) are increasingly applied in dynamic scenarios, however, their limited explainability hinders their adoption in high-stakes domains. Existing methods tend to conflate causality with temporal proximity, leading to ambiguous explanations that mix impactful and irrelevant events. Moreover, they lack counterfactual reasoning to assess whether altering specific temporal events would change TGNN predictions. To overcome these challenges, we propose CTM-Explainer, which identifies critical temporal dependencies through iterative "what-if" perturbation analysis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first post-hoc counterfactual explanation framework for TGNN. It enables precise attribution of how specific timestamped events influence TGNN predictions. By embedding causal analysis into a reinforcement learning framework, CTM-Explainer constructs Counterfactual Temporal Motifs (CTMs) that are causally grounded in model outcome shifts via interventional probability estimation. This design eliminates temporally correlated but non-essential events, while preserving those with verified causal influence. Extensive experiments on real-world and synthetic datasets confirm that CTM-Explainer generates more faithful and concise explanations than existing methods, at significantly lower computational cost.

Explainable Graph Neural Network  /  Temporal Graph Neural Network  /  Post-hoc Explanation  /  Graph Neural Network
Yibowen Zhao, Yonghui Xu, Ning Liu, Lizhen Cui, Qingzhong Li. Generating Counterfactual Temporal Motifs: Unraveling the Mysteries of Temporal Graph Neural Networks[J]. Data Science and Engineering, 2026 , 11 (1) : 199 -212 . DOI: 10.1007/s41019-025-00321-x
  • Natural Science Foundation of China(92367202; 62202279)
  • Excellent Youth Science Fund Project (Overseas) of Shandong Province(2023HWYQ-039)
  • Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province(ZR2022QF018; ZR2023LZH006)
Year 2026 volume 11 Issue 1
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Article Info
doi: 10.1007/s41019-025-00321-x
  • Receive Date:2025-05-10
  • Online Date:2026-08-06
  • Published:2026-03-01
Article Data
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History
  • Received:2025-05-10
  • Revised:2025-09-01
  • Accepted:2025-09-22
Funding
Natural Science Foundation of China(92367202; 62202279)
Excellent Youth Science Fund Project (Overseas) of Shandong Province(2023HWYQ-039)
Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province(ZR2022QF018; ZR2023LZH006)
Affiliations
    1School of Software & Joint SDU-NTU Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China

Corresponding:

Yonghui Xu 
Lizhen Cui 
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表12种不同金属材料的力学参数

Family
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Number of
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Number of
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鹅膏菌科Amanitaceae 2 11 5.26 鹅膏菌属 Amanita 10 4.78
小菇科 Mycenaceae 2 12 5.74 丝盖伞属 Inocybe 5 2.39
多孔菌科 Polyporaceae 8 14 6.70 蜡蘑属 Laccaria 5 2.39
红菇科 Russulaceae 3 23 11.00 小皮伞属 Marasmius 6 2.87
小菇属 Mycena 11 5.26
光柄菇属 Pluteus 5 2.39
红菇属 Russula 17 8.13
栓菌属 Trametes 5 2.39
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