Speculatively, termed “functional compensation” or “compensatory engagement” (e.g., Suskauer et al., 2008; Tapert et al., 2004b; Tsapkini, Vindiola, & Rapp, 2011), this pattern of activity might underlie the similar task performance in AU and non-AU youth. Concretely, AU youth may be less able to access anticipated brain regions (task-relevant systems utilized by non-AU youth), with less-expected (task-irrelevant) areas coming on line to compensate for areas of decreased involvement, subsequently suggesting AU youths' use of different cognitive strategies and neuronal organization. However, it is equally possible that this difference is due to maturation, whereby AU youth might just be slightly slower in having functions allocated to specialized networks as compared with their non-AU peers (e.g., Norman et al., 2011) (see Future directions section).
