Etay Hay
PhD
Research Synopsis
Dr. Hay’s research uses computational models of cortical circuits to study the cellular and circuit mechanisms of cortical processing in health and disease. We are currently studying inhibitory connections in cortical circuits in depression and schizophrenia. We develop models of human cortical circuits by capitalizing on unique data from CAMH and Toronto Western Hospital, and study how altered inhibition affects cortical processing and oscillatory activity between cortical layers. In turn, we simulate electrode probes to characterize the signatures of the cellular effects in clinically-relevant brain electroencephalography signals. In addition, we use our computational platform to test in silico the effects of candidate pharmacology for depression developed at CAMH on human and rodent model circuits. Our research integrates unique human data to develop a computational platform to advance our understanding of cellular and circuit mechanisms of brain disorders, improve the ability to diagnose using brain recordings, and facilitate the translation of candidate therapeutics by testing in silico their effects on cortical circuits
Keywords
Electrophysiology, cortical circuits, models, synapses, inhibition, spiking, depression, sensory processing, oscillations, electroencephalography, neuronal cell-types, connectivity, depression, schizophrenia
Methods
Computational models, conductance-based models, neural networks, machine learning, simulations
Collaborators
Etienne Sibille, CAMH, University of Toronto
Taufik Valiante, Toronto Western Hospital, University of Toronto
Shreejoy Tripathy, CAMH, University of Toronto
John Griffiths, CAMH, University of Toronto
Trainees
Alexandre Guet-McCreight (Postdoc)
Frank Mazza (PhD)
Kant Yao (MSc)
Sana Rosanally (MSc)
Faraz Moghbel (MSc)
Taaha Hassan (Undergraduate)
Recent Publications
View Dr. Hay’s publications on Google Scholar
(https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iircviMAAAAJ&hl=en)
Mazza F, Griffiths JD, Hay E. EEG Biomarkers of reduced inhibition in human cortical microcircuits in depression. bioRxiv 2021
Yao HK, Guet-McCreight A, Mazza F, … Valiante TA, Sibille E, Hay E. Reduced inhibition in depression impairs stimulus processing in human cortical microcircuits. bioRxiv 2021
Hay E, Pruszynski JA. Orientation processing by synaptic integration across first-order tactile neurons. PLoS Comput Biol. 2020 Dec 2; 16 (12): e1008303
Appointments
Independent Scientist, Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics, CAMH
Cross-appointment in Physiology
Psychiatry (primary)
Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (member)
Max Planck – UofT (member)