"The hippocampus and amygdala work together. The hippocampus is like an "experience" assembly line and the amygdala its workers. The hippocampus sends our current and past experiences to either "long term" memory or the recycling bin. And the amygdala puts a stamp on the experience. This stamp can be things like "dangerous", "interesting", "useful", etc... But the stronger the stamp, the more likely it will affect your future behavior. And anything with a stamp goes to long term memory."