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Robust effects of accentuation were evident in the form of an \u201caccent positivity\u201d (200\u2013500 msec) for accented elements irrespective of their congruity. Our results show that incongruously accented elements, that is, superfluous accents, activate a specific set of neural systems that is inactive in case of incongruously unaccented elements, that is, missing accents. Superfluous accents triggered an early positivity around 100 msec poststimulus, followed by a right-lateralized negative effect (N400). This response suggests that redundant information is identified immediately and leads to the activation of a neural system that is associated with semantic processing (N400). No such effects were found when contextually expected accents were missing. In a later time window, both missing and superfluous accents triggered a late positivity on midline electrodes, presumably related to making sense of both kinds of mismatching stimuli. These results challenge previous findings of greater processing for missing accents and suggest that the natural processing of prosody involves a set of distinct, temporally organized neural systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/jocn_a_00302","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2012,9,28]],"date-time":"2012-09-28T03:41:47Z","timestamp":1348803707000},"page":"2400-2418","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":34,"title":["Less Is Not More: Neural Responses to Missing and Superfluous Accents in Context"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"24","author":[{"given":"Diana V.","family":"Dimitrova","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"1University of Groningen"},{"name":"2Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, The Netherlands"},{"name":"3Radboud University Nijmegen"}]},{"given":"Laurie A.","family":"Stowe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"1University of Groningen"}]},{"given":"Gisela","family":"Redeker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"1University of Groningen"}]},{"given":"John C. 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