Journal of Traumatic Stress xxxx 2018, 00, 1–11 Neurophysiological Correlates of Collective Trauma Recall in 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake Survivors Giuseppe Massaro, 1 Daniela Altavilla, 1 Paola Aceto, 2 Gaia Romana Pellicano, 1 Giada Lucarelli, 1 Massimiliano Luciani, 3 and Carlo Lai 1 1 Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy 2 Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy 3 Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy In the present study, we aimed to explore neural correlates of survivors of the 2009 L’Aquila, Italy earthquake in response to being shown pictures featuring their own city before and after an earthquake as well as those of an unfamiliar city. Moreover, we explored the associations among psychological variables and brain responses to the pictures of L’Aquila after the earthquake. Our final sample (N = 30 adults) comprised 15 survivors (M age = 31.40 years, SD = 9.42) and 15 controls (M age = 30.53 years, SD = 10.01). Participants’ electroencephalographic (EEG) data were recorded during a visual task that included earthquake-related stimuli. Participants were assessed for posttraumatic and dissociation symptoms and event-related potential components, and low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) were analyzed. Compared to the control group, source localization in survivors indicated a lower intensity of the amygdala, hippocampal, parahippocampal, and temporopolar areas in response to visual stimuli concerning the earthquake, p < .001 to p < .0001. Results indicated a reduced limbic activation in response to visual stimuli that evoked the recall of earthquake in survivors. This finding suggests that survivors likely adopted a distancing strategy toward stimuli that may have elicited an emotional activation related to collective trauma. Trauma is an event or condition perceived as life-threatening or potentially able to cause serious physical injury to oneself or others (Sakuma et al., 2015; Sherin & Nemeroff, 2011). Trauma seems to act as an etiological factor in psychological disorders, temporarily or permanently altering the perception of the threat and the capacity to cope with life challenges due to its great impact on a person’s life (Sherin & Nemeroff, 2011). Bremner (2000) suggested two possible responses to trauma: reexperi- encing and/or hyperarousal and dissociation. Specifically, post- traumatic dissociative symptoms include amnesia, emotional numbing, and avoidance of reminders (Lanius et al., 2010). Dissociation as a response to traumatic experiences has been broadly discussed over the last 25 years (Dutra & Wolf, 2017). On one hand, biologically based variability could be considered as a possible predisposition to the capacity to integrate sen- sory and cognitive processes (Bremner, Krystal, Southwick, & This project was funded by Ateneo Sapienza (2014). The authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest. All authors contributed equally to the study. The authors acknowledge and thank all the participants in the study, in particular participants from L’Aquila. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Carlo Lai, De- partment of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via degli Apuli, 1, 00185 Rome, Italy. E-mail: carlo.lai@uniroma1.it C  2018 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com DOI: 10.1002/jts.22334 Charney, 1995; Buckley, Blanchard, & Neill, 2000; Giesbrecht, Lynn, Lilienfeld, & Merckelbach, 2008; Lynn et al., 2014; Merckelbach & Muris, 2001). On the other hand, dissociation could be conceptualized as excessive trauma-related down- regulation of emotion that serves as a form of avoidance of trauma-related emotions, cognitions, and memories (Dalenberg et al., 2012; Lanius, Brand, Vermetten, Frewen, & Spiegel, 2012). Victims of repeated traumatic experiences have of- ten demonstrated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with symptoms of dissociation (Bremner, 2000; Stovall-McClough & Cloitre, 2006). Recent studies that used latent class analy- ses have shown that individuals with the dissociative subtype of PTSD often report frequent exposure to traumatic experi- ences (e.g., childhood and adult sexual trauma; Hansen, Ross, & Armour, 2017; Wolf, Lunney et al., 2012; Wolf, Miller et al., 2012). Moreover, individuals who have previously experienced acute dissociative responses to trauma have been shown to develop a chronic pattern of dissociation (Bremner & Brett, 1997). Neurobiological studies have shown that the two types of responses to trauma, reexperiencing/hyperarousal and dis- sociation, are associated with different neural correlates. The reexperiencing/hyperarousal response seems to be associated with a lower activation of the anterior cingulate cortex and pre- frontal cortex and a greater activation of the limbic areas. Con- versely, the dissociative response seems to be associated with a higher activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, the prefrontal 1