When component processes of executive functions have not been found to be impaired, there may have been compensatory input through alternate brain pathways. For example, Gilman et al. (2010) found that despite not showing performance deficits during decision-making fMRI tasks, alcoholics recruited a larger frontal brain network than nonalcoholics, especially in the left inferior and right middle frontal gyri. Additionally, Pfefferbaum et al. (2001a) did not identify differences between alcoholics and controls in a spatial working memory fMRI task, but did find that alcoholics used more inferior- and posterior-frontal regions than controls, who activated dorsolateral prefrontal cortex primarily. Similarly, Desmond et al. (2003) reported that alcoholics with sobriety periods from four weeks to two years, while not showing performance impairments (accuracy and reaction time) on a verbal working-memory fMRI task, exhibited greater fMRI activation than a control group in left frontal and right superior cerebellar regions. These findings suggested that increased activation in language and articulatory-control regions may reflect the compensatory recruitment necessary to perform simple decision-making or working-memory tasks.
