It has been proposed that there are two distinct neural circuits underlying human episodic memory. A first circuit connects the hippocampus to the anterior nucleus of the thalamus (hippocampal-anterior thalamic memory circuit). A second circuit conveys fibers from the perirhinal cortex to the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus (perirhinal-medial dorsal thalamic memory circuit). In this article, we briefly review research investigating the functional roles of the two circuits in memory, including neuropsychological studies of amnesic patients with thalamic infarcts and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of healthy participants. On the basis of the findings, we discuss the relationship between thalamic structures, episodic memory, and its disorders (thalamic amnesia).