After surgery removed his hippocampus, the patient known as H.M. could still learn new skills but had no memory of learning them, because:

1. H.M. underwent surgery in 1953 that removed his hippocampus and amygdala to control severe seizures. 2. He lost the ability to form many types of new memories, could not learn new facts, and could not remember new faces or events. 3. He could nonetheless acquire new skills, such as using a computer, while having no conscious recollection of ever having done so. 4. The chapter attributes that preserved ability to his cerebellum remaining intact, since the cerebellum is an important area for procedural memory, the memory for how to perform tasks. 5. His case is used to show the hippocampus's role in consolidating new learning into explicit memory, which is precisely the capacity he lost. _Source: OpenStax Psychology (1st ed., CC BY 4.0), Ch 3 "Biopsychology", §3.4 The Brain and Spinal Cord_