Table 1.

Summary of strengths and limitations of ex vivo and 2D in vitro platforms for brain studies.

	Strengths	Limitations
Human Postmortem Tissues[41–54]	Complexity of brain preserved, including cell composition and spatial organization	Tissue not living, no evaluation of function or development over time
	Identification of disease markers	Limited reproducibility or scalability for high-throughput screening
	Imaging of brain structure
Rodent Slice Cultures[55–72]	Complexity of brain preserved, including cell composition and spatial organization	Limited capability for evaluating function or development over time
	Analysis of neural network anatomy and function	Limited reproducibility or scalability
		Not suitable for high-throughput screening
2D Cell Culture[73–86]	Reproducible and scalable: high-throughput screening	Limited culture longevity, particularly for primary cells as opposed to stem cells
	Suitable for non-invasive imaging and electrophysiological recordings	Low complexity, not representative of native cell environment
	Modeling of human biology through stem cell technology