<P> There are usually two approaches to studying implicit memory . The first is to define a characteristic associated with explicit memory . If a person with a normal working memory can solve the task (e.g. remembering a list of words), then they are consciously recalling a memory . The second approach invokes neither a conscious nor an unconscious response . This approach is dependent on many independent variables that affect the response of a person's implicit and explicit memory . </P> <P> Empirical evidence suggests infants are only capable of implicit memory because they are unable to intentionally draw knowledge from pre-existing memories . As people mature, they are usually capable of intentional recollection of memory, or Explicit memory . However, amnesic patients are usually the exception to developing memory, but are still capable of undergoing priming, to some extent . Since procedural memory is based on automatic responses to certain stimuli, amnesic patients are not affected by their disability when behaving habitually . </P> <P> Some of the child's primary experiences are positive and essential for the physical and mental growth of the child . Others may be traumatic: neglect, parental inadequacy or possible mental illness, physical or psychological violence, child abuse, even of a sexual nature, as well as the constant frustrations and disillusionments that lead the child to organize its defences and boost its phantasies . All these experiences cannot be repressed because the hippocampus, necessary for the explicit memory, which is in turn indispensable for repression, is not mature in early infancy (R. Joseph, 1996; Siegel, 1999). On the contrary, the amygdala, which promotes the organization of the implicit memory, undergoes an earlier maturation (R. Joseph, 1996). Therefore, these early experiences, including those that concern the organization of language, can only be deposited in this latter form of memory and they contribute to the formation of an early unrepressed unconscious nucleus of the self (Mancia, 2003a, in press). </P> <P> Although the explicit--implicit distinction was introduced during the 1980s, the sort of contrast that it captures is not new; related distinctions between conscious and unconscious memories, to take just one example, have been around for more than a century (for historical considerations, see Roediger, 1990b; Schacter, 1987). The critical development during the past decade has been the systematic demonstration, exploration, and attempted explanation of dissociations between explicit and implicit memory . Some of these dissociations have been provided by experiments demonstrating that brain - damaged amnesic patients with severe impairments of explicit memory can exhibit intact implicit memory; others come from studies showing that specific experimental variables produce different and even opposite effects on explicit and implicit memory tasks . </P>

Where is implicit memory stored in the brain