Objective To understand the characteristics and developmental differences between cerebral organoids in vitro and normal cerebral cortices in vivo.   Methods  1. Grouping: cerebral cortices in vivo group and cultured cerebral organoids in vitro group. 2.  Sample collection: cortical tissues were collected from Kunming mouse embryos at embryonic day 7.5（E7.5）, E9.5, E11.5, E14.5, and postnatal day 3 (P3) or P7. Three specimens were taken from each group. Meanwhile, cerebral organoids were cultured with mouse induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and samples at different culture time point were collected, and more than 3 samples were collected at each time point. 3. Detection method: the distribution of different types of cells in each group of specimens was analyzed by immunofluorescent staining.  Results  While relative similarities between in vivo cerebral cortical development and the cerebral organoids in vitro were observed, including the histogenesis, and the morphological differentiation of nerve cells and glial cells, the lamellar architecture of cerebral cortex in mouse brain was not observed in cerebral organoids.     Conclusion  The development of cerebral organoids in vitro has some similarity with body’s cortical development. Therefore, cerebral organoids can be used to a substitution of cortex and diseases’ models, but improvement of the existing technologies is necessary.