Sensory input comes in and causes minicolumns to fire in certain patterns. The resulting pattern is influenced by the input and the "tendencies" of the minicolumn that have been spatially encoded over time. Each firing pattern, each message, competes with other messages from minicolumns within its network. Through this competition each network settles on the most fit message, the message that best correlates with sensory input and the tendencies of its minicolumns.