ORIGINAL ARTICLE The eye of the self: precuneus volume and visual perspective during autobiographical memory retrieval Maxime Freton • Ce ´dric Lemogne • Loretxu Bergouignan • Pauline Delaveau • Ste ´phane Lehe ´ricy • Philippe Fossati Received: 13 November 2012 / Accepted: 16 March 2013 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract Visual perspective (i.e. first-person versus third-person perspective) during autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval plays a role in both emotional regulation and self-related processes. However, its neural underpin- nings remain mostly unexplored. Visual perspective during AM retrieval was assessed in two independent datasets of 45 and 20 healthy young adults with two different AM retrieval tasks. Diffeomorphic anatomical registration using exponentiated lie algebra and voxel-based mor- phometry were used to assess individual differences in the precuneus grey matter volume. The spontaneous tendency to recall memories from a first-person perspective was positively correlated with the right precuneus volume among the two independent datasets. Whole-brain analyses revealed that these results were relatively specific to the anterior part of the right precuneus. Our results provide first evidence for the role of the precuneus in egocentric spatial processing in the context of AM retrieval among healthy subjects. Keywords Visual perspective Á Autobiographical memory Á Precuneus Á Voxel-based morphometry M. Freton Á P. Delaveau Á S. Lehe ´ricy Á P. Fossati Faculte ´ de Me ´decine, Universite ´ Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), Paris, France P. Delaveau e-mail: pauline.delaveau@yahoo.fr S. Lehe ´ricy e-mail: stephane.lehericy@upmc.fr P. Fossati e-mail: philippe.fossati@psl.aphp.fr M. Freton (&) Á P. Fossati Assistance Publique-Ho ˆpitaux de Paris, Service de psychiatrie adulte, Ba ˆtiment La Force, Department of Psychiatry, Ho ˆpital Pitie ´-Salpe ˆtrie `re, 47 boulevard de l’Ho ˆpital, 75651 Paris Cedex 13, France e-mail: maxime.freton@voila.fr M. Freton Á P. Delaveau Á P. Fossati CNRS USR 3246, Pitie ´-Salpe ˆtrie `re Hospital, Paris, France C. Lemogne Faculte ´ de Me ´decine, Sorbonne Paris Cite ´, Universite ´ Paris Descartes, Paris, France e-mail: cedric.lemogne@egp.aphp.fr C. Lemogne Assistance Publique-Ho ˆpitaux de Paris, Service Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l’adulte et du sujet a ˆge ´, Ho ˆpitaux Universitaires Paris Ouest, Paris, France C. Lemogne INSERM U894, Centre de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences, Ho ˆpital Sainte-Anne, Paris, France L. Bergouignan Brain, Body and Self Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden e-mail: loretxu.bergouignan@ki.se S. Lehe ´ricy CR-ICM, UPMC, INSERM UMRS 975, CNRS 7225, Centre de NeuroImagerie de Recherche (CENIR), Ho ˆpital Pitie ´-Salpe ˆtrie `re, Paris, France S. Lehe ´ricy Assistance Publique-Ho ˆpitaux de Paris, Department of Neuroradiology, Ho ˆpital Pitie ´-Salpe ˆtrie `re, 47 boulevard de l’ho ˆpital, 75013 Paris, France 123 Brain Struct Funct DOI 10.1007/s00429-013-0546-2