Originally Posted by TheSquealer

Procedural memory is not related to the hippocampus. You are talking about automated, learned skills which are performed automatically. The brain is not a computer which stores and recalls information. That's similar to saying "he can't remember what he reads at all but he can ride a bike".

Besides, the question in such examples is not "what was destroyed", the question is "how and where did the brain compensate"

Further, your brain is highly "plastic" or adaptable. Meaning that when a lesion impairs some pathway, yet you persist in training the affected task/skill etc, your brain will figure out how to compensate for the impairment. A child (generally under the age of 6) can have 1/2 the hemisphere of their brain removed and develop full brain function to the extent that there are no outward signs of impairment. A simple example of this is the fact that autopsies show people with advanced Alzheimers all the time, yet they never showed a single symptom because they kept forcing their brain to work and find new pathways to accomplish a task... vs laying down and dying (teachers, scientists or whatever - people who place a high cognitive load on their brain daily). This is extremely common and never talked about except within science.

and this is where the trouble begins.... what is "mind", what is a "strong mind"?