During development, the nervous system forms as a flat sheet called the neuroepithelium on the outer layer of the embryo. This sheet eventually folds in on itself to form a neural tube that gives rise to the brain and spinal cord—a process that involves the proliferation and migration of immature nerve cells to form the brain at one end and the spinal cord at the other. Yoshiki Sasai, Taisuke Kadoshima and colleagues from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology have now shown that human embryonic stem (ES) cells can spontaneously organize into the cerebral cortical tissue that forms at the front, or 'brain' end, of the developing neural tube.
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