A new instrumentation for fundamental research in field of Elementary Particle Physics is Developing sensory cortex displays particular immature patterns of activity that are thought to contribute to the formation of thalamo-cortical maps during critical periods of plasticity. In the premature human neonates, cortical activity is characterized by discontinuous temporal organization, with the intermittent local bursts of activity (called delta-brushes) separated by long, up to tens of seconds, periods of electrical silence. Delta-brushes consist of alpha-beta oscillations nested in delta-waves. Delta-brushes are spontaneous events, but they can be also evoked in a topographic manner in sensory cortices by somatosensory, visual and auditory stimulations. In somatosensory cortex, delta-brushes can be also triggered by myoclonic twitches. Very similar to premature human delta-brushes activity patterns (spindle-bursts and early gamma oscillations) have been also described in sensory cortices of neonatal rats during the first postnatal week, which is a critical period in the formation of thalamo-cortical somatosensory and visual maps. Extracellular and whole-cell recordings from sensory cortices of neonatal rats provided insights into the network mechanisms of the early cortical activity patterns. Firstly, it was shown that early cortical oscillations are primarily driven by the thalamic inputs, and that cortical interneurons are recruited to support these early oscillations in a developmental manner. Secondly, early gamma oscillations were shown to provide multiple replay of sensory input in the thalamo-cortical connections between topographically aligned thalamic and cortical neurons, and to support long-term potentiation in these synapses. Finally, it has been shown that spontaneous activity from sensory periphery (sensory feedback resulting from myoclonic twitches in somatosensory system and spontaneous waves of activity in the light-insensitive retina in visual system) play a role of the physiological trigger for these early cortical patterns. Taken together, these results support the idea that the early cortical activity patterns participate in the formation of thalamo-cortical maps during the critical period and that endogenous mechanisms enable coordination of activity at sensory periphery and in the thalamo-cortical networks. The latter may be particularly important in human, whose critical period in thalamo-cortical development occurs in utero, when fetus develops in the conditions of virtually complete sensory deprivation.