Human cerebral cortex development

Many human psychiatric and neurological conditions have developmental origins. The human cerebral cortex has some unique genetic, molecular, cellular and anatomical features, which need to be further explored. Rodent models are extremely valuable for the investigation of brain development but cannot provide insight into aspects that are specifically human.

At the winter meeting of the Anatomical Society in 2010 we hosted a symposium focused on development of the human cerebral cortex (see special issue of the JOA 217, Issue 4). At that time a renaissance in the study of human brain development was getting underway, made possible by the availability of new techniques, such as generation of human neural stem cells and organoids ex vivo, in utero MRI, and RNAseq and resources such as the Allen Brain Atlas and the Human Developmental Biology Resource. Eight years later, we felt that the time had come to review the spectacular progress made since the last meeting.

The Anatomical Society Summer Meeting 2018 meeting attracted an international cast of speakers who provided insights into the cellular and molecular features of human cortical expansion and evolution, uniquely human features of cortical circuit formation, the development of the subplate in health and disease, and the origins of human cortical malformations, among other topics.

St John's College, Oxford, hosted this exciting event. The meeting coincided with the exhibition ‘The Art of Anatomy’ (see Lee et al., J. Anat. (2019) 234, pp 577–582). We are very grateful to the Anatomical Society and JOA for giving us the opportunity to assemble a second special issue on cerebral cortical development. This issue contains 16 articles comprising original papers and reviews from the participants of the meeting.

The papers summarise the various aspects of human cerebral cortical development from the earliest stages of neurogenesis, to neuronal migration, differentiation and circuit assembly. Gliogenesis, vascular development and barrier functions are also featured in some of the publications. Organoids generated from induced pluripotent human stem cells can model human specific early cortical development but have considerable limitations for studying barrier functions, vasculature and more complex circuit assemblies. Some articles give an overview on the impact of maternal inflammation, infection and maternal metabolism on brain development. Zika congenital syndrome and its pathomechanisms are also covered. We are very pleased to be able to publish these exciting papers in this special issue of JOA.