I recently had some questions concerning the capacity of the brain's memory:Are different types of long term-memories like know-how, your-life, etc. remembered in different parts of the brain? If so, how large are these different kinds of partitions of the brain? See also: Savants and Volume.
Are different types of long term memories stored in different parts of the brain?
neurobiology;long term memory
As far as your first question is concerned:It seems that you're interested in the distinction between declarative and nondeclarative forms of memory. These different forms of memory have also been termed knowing that and knowing how (Cohen & Squire, 1980)Nondeclarative memory, according to Squire (2004), is an umbrella term refering to Procedural Memory, Priming, Classical Conditioning and nonassociative forms of learning. It seems that this type of knowledge is located over different areas in the brain, including Neocortex, Amygdala, Cerebellum and Neostriatum.Declarative memory is divided into semantic and episodic memory, which might be what you mean by your-life. In the brain, this form of memory is associated with the Hippocampus, whose major areas are the Dentate Gyrus and the CA3 and CA1 regions.References:Cohen, N. J. and Squire, L. R. (1980). Preserved learning and retention of pattern-analyzing skill in amnesia: Dissociation of knowing how and knowing that. Science, 210, 207210.Squire, L. R. (2004). Memory systems of the brain: a brief history and current perspective. Neurobiology of learning and memory, 82, 171177.