Final answer:
The cerebellum is the brain structure responsible for procedural memory, which is the type of memory for motor skills and actions performed without conscious thought. Damage to the cerebellum can impair the ability to learn conditioned reflexes and motor tasks.
Step-by-step explanation:
The brain structure responsible for procedural memory is the cerebellum. Procedural memory encompasses the motor skills and actions that we perform without conscious thought, such as riding a bicycle or playing a musical instrument. Although the hippocampus is involved in explicit memory processing and is crucial for the formation of new memories, it is not the key structure for procedural memory. Studies involving patients and animals have shown that the cerebellum is vital for motor learning and classical conditioning, which are components of procedural memory. For example, damage to the cerebellum in rabbits impairs their ability to learn conditioned reflexes, such as the eye-blink response in classical conditioning experiments.
In contrast, the basal ganglia is a set of nuclei that influence the decision to move, play a role in reward and movement regulation, and are also implicated in the learning of habits, which ties into procedural learning. However, the critical role of the cerebellum in procedural memory is well documented.