Self-Organizing Neural Networks in Organoids Reveal Principles of Forebrain Circuit Assembly

The mouse cortex is a canonical model for studying how functional neural networks emerge, yet it remains unclear which topological features arise from intrinsic cellular organization versus sensory input. Mouse forebrain organoids provide a powerful system to investigate these intrinsic mechanisms. We generated dorsal (DF) and ventral (VF) forebrain organoids from mouse pluripotent stem cells and tracked their development using longitudinal electrophysiology. DF organoids showed progressively stronger network-wide correlations, while VF organoids developed more refined activity patterns with enhanced small-world topology and increased modular organization. Both organoid types form small-world networks, but their topological organization differs. These differences emerged without extrinsic inputs and correlate with Pvalb+ interneuron enrichment in VF organoids. Our findings demonstrate how cellular composition influences neural circuit self-organization, establishing mouse forebrain organoids as a tractable platform to study cortical network architecture. Overall design: Single cell RNA sequencing was performed on 30 mouse cortical organoids from three separate cell lines (10 organoids per cell line).