Below I am reinterpreting your first sentence as "Not 'per se', correct." (Your original has roughly the opposite meaning of this interpretation, but I've been

Below I am reinterpreting your first sentence as "Not 'per se', correct." (Your original has roughly the opposite meaning of this interpretation, but I've been known to omit metaspeech-indicating quotation marks, myself.) Your answer is interesting. For those following I should note that compensation means a curative or attempted curative event (as opposed to a disease event such as bacterial infection.) As what is probably an aside, neurotransmitter production being actively downregulated as a compensatory mechanism (to lower local metabolism needs) is possible, and an interesting thought (whether my thought or your thought) (just not one that creates a buildup of tau etc.) I haven't encountered any evidence that this is compensatory and not just a downstream effect. Your mileage may vary. The evidence that mental activity reduces disease progression might be taken as disconfirmation of such an hypothesis - except that mental practice could be helping mask the underlying (progress of the) disease by increasing skill/adaptation. Re schizophrenia, I now think of it as a definition affected by a kind of "publication bias." The underlying disease process (or processes) may have rather random results depending on just what part of the brain is most affected - only when the amygdala is strongly affected is a patient likely to get a diagnosis of Schizophrenia, since this can make them (or make them seem) "a danger of self or others."