The Conversion Process
Just beneath each temporal lobe is a little patchwork of cells quite different in their appearance from the typical neurons.
These two networks are responsible for converting information in the Short-term circuits to the Long-term memory bank. They cover only a small area of the brain, but for all intents and purposes, they are our life!
Should both these areas be damaged by something like anoxia or brain trauma, our life, as we remember it would end at that instant.
We could remember the past up to that point, and we could remember the present as far as long a Short-term memory permits, but everything beyond that point would be totally forgotten in a matter of hours.
If such a thing occurred to me, for example, before President Kennedy's death, my conversation to this day would still be about that president and his times.