Motor Memory (procedural memory):
We don’t often realize how much we rely on motor memory in our daily lives. But almost every act from brushing our teeth to speaking depends upon this memory bank.
When things go wrong and we can’t find these motor patterns or we continually retrieve the wrong ones, we have what is called apraxia.
This can be severe enough to preclude ever learning to speak, or to use sign language or to just plain walk or crawl.
On the other hand, learning new motor patterns involves some unique features. One is that the learning process seems to somehow bypass the conversion process from Short-term to Long-term memory.
Hence, if the conversion process is disrupted and we can no longer learn anything new, we can still learn new motor patterns! Happily, the opportunity to learn new crafts, sports and music skills is not beyond reach.