A car accident victim presents with no memory of the accident or events following the accident but can clearly recall events that occurred prior to the accident. Neurologists thus suspect damage to the __________.

Evaluate the other options provided: the cerebral cortex is involved in higher brain functions such as thought and action, the frontal lobe is associated with decision making and problem solving, the primary somatosensory cortex processes sensory information, and the amygdala is involved in emotions. None of these are primarily responsible for forming new memories.

Recognize that the ability to recall events prior to the accident indicates that long-term memory storage is intact, which is consistent with the hippocampus being affected, as it is responsible for forming new memories rather than storing old ones.