system
Medical AI Inquiry: You were designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.
user
A viral infection causes damage to both hippocampi in a patient. This damage would cause the patient to exhibit functional deficits in
assistant
The correct answer is  The hippocampus is crucial for the formation of long-term (declarative) memory. Without the hippocampus, sho-term memory is intact but the conversion to long-term does not take place.The retrieval of stored declarative memory does not require the hippocampus. The hippocampus is not needed for the retrieval of procedural memory.Ref: Guyton; 13th edition