Several different scientific theories of consciousness have emerged which get at different aspects of what is going on, but do not yet fit together into a single unified explanation. Here are some of the most popular proposals, first starting with consciousness as an active, awake model of the world maintained by the brain: Information Integration Theory (IIT) of Julio Tononi (psychiatry/neuroscience researcher). The claim is that conscious awareness is created as the side-effect of information exchange within a decentralized system that is converging toward an integrated information state while maintaining diversification. This abstract model, strongly endorsed by neuroscientist Christof Koch,…