Final answer:
The hippocampus and related medial temporal lobe structures are the areas most consistently injured in episodic amnesics, leading to difficulties in forming new episodic memories.
Step-by-step explanation:
The area of the brain most consistently injured in episodic amnesics is the hippocampus. Studies on patients such as H.M., who suffered from anterograde amnesia after having his hippocampi removed, have shown that while other memory functions such as procedural and short-term memory might remain intact, the ability to form new episodic memories is severely impaired due to damage to the hippocampus and related medial temporal structures. Episodic memory is autobiographical in nature and encompasses the memory of experiences and specific events in one's life, normally entailing the context of 'what, where, and when'.
Such injuries lead to anterograde amnesia, where individuals cannot remember new information post-injury but can often remember information and events that occurred before it. The hippocampus aids in transferring information from short-term to long-term memory, playing a crucial role in the consolidation process. In the case of episodic amnesia, it is this transfer mechanism that is disrupted.