People with damage to the hippocampus seem to be unable to remember recent events even though their memory of events before the damage remains intact. This seems to indicate that the hippocampus is involved in ___.

The hippocampus is important in helping the brain to STORE NEW MEMORIES.

Explanation:

People with damage to their hippocampus have virtually no capability of storing verbal or declarative types of memory in long -term memories, that is, they are unable store types of information that are the basis of intelligence. This is often called ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA.

Hippocampi are important in the output pathway from the reward and punishment areas of the limbic system among other structures.

Sensory stimuli or thoughts that cause pain excite the limbic punishment centers while stimuli that cause pleasure, happiness excite to reward centers. Hippocampi especially have a part to play in the response of the brain in making decisions about which of the thoughts are important on the basis of reward or punishment to be good for storing as memories. So any lesion or damage to this area causes loss of memory of the recent happenings both in long and intermediate term.

stabilizing short-term memory  that is tentative storage   of new information or experiences before  converting it into long term  or permanent memory.

Explanation:

As we experiences our daily activities of life,  new information  and experiences are continuously been stored  momentarily  in the hyppocampus which stabilized them ,and keep  for hours after learning. This is synaptic consolidation. At night during sleep the hippocampus makes further connection with  existing  memories in the brain to increase  neural networks involved  in the particular information storage,and transfer this to long term memories.

The process of memory consolidation makes us of long- term potentiation, in which as more neural networks are made the strength of action potential between connecting neurons  and the number signals they transmit also increases.Therefore during long-term memories,  same group of neurons fires together, outputting high number of signals together, thus becomes  permanently sensitized to one another.This occurs  with each new memories  consolidated by the hippocampus.

Therefore, the  hippo-campus dependent memories become independent of it; And this is called system consolidation.)