Glutamatergic pyramidal neurons and GABAergic interneurons comprise cerebral cortex together with non-neuronal astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Pyramidal neurons arise from the pallium, specifically, from radial glial cells (RGs) in the ventricular zone (VZ) and outer radial glial cells (oRGs), and from intermediate progenitors (IPs) in the subventricular zone (SVZ). In contrast, cortical interneurons are derived chiefly from the medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) of subpallium, then migrate tangentially to the cerebral cortex, and finally integrate into local neural networks (Hansen et al., 2013; Ma et al., 2013). Interneurons are critical for modulating the activity of cortical networks (Markram et al., 2004), and disruption in interneuron activity has been associated with various neurological diseases (Chao et al., 2010; Mariani et al., 2015). Realizing the critical role of interneurons in shaping brain development and in the etiology of multiple neurological disorders, methods to generate interneuron-enriched neural culture from hPSCs have been developed (Germain et al., 2013; Liu et al., 2013; Maroof et al., 2013; Nicholas et al., 2013).
