Explicit Memory, Implicit Memory, and the Hippocampus: Insights From Early Neuroimaging Studies

During the 1980s and 1990s, much memory research focused on the differential role of the hippocampus in various forms of memory. My work on the distinction between explicit and implicit memory led me to become involved in several early neuroimaging studies that made use of cognitive paradigms to investigate the conditions in which hippocampal activity does and does not occur, and to address the theoretical implications of these findings. Here, I summarize two such projects and some of the personal backstory associated with them.