the hippocampus turning short term into long term memories was stunted, and the emigulo all were stunted leads researches to cognitive disorders, antisocial behaviour and worse. we are see true tangible effect of living in poverty. >> when we do the research, are we talking about environmental factors, the places where poor children live, or the nutrition they get for the stimulation that the environment provides. what is it that we are measuring development. >> in this particular case, what made that study stand out is it was scans of children followed over a long period of time, but didn't take into account environment factors, except they were living in poverty. results were consistent. when you think about the broader questions - nutrition, exposure to trauma, violence, the ripple effect of poverty, science is just coming to grips with. a study of maryland area found half living in poverty experienced severe depression, compared to mother among 14%. instead you have a jump of 35%. that when you have a mum who is depressed, and the center of the family, it ensnares kids into bad stuff

it's this part of the brain here called the hippocampus. >> reporter: you may want to keep this in mind. >> i would perhaps consider stopping the over the counter medications to see if there was any benefit from continuing to take them. >> reporter: dr. turner says if you're taking a prescription group that's in the anticholinergic group, you may want to have a conversation with your physician about risks to long term memory. i'm andrea roane, wusa9. >> according to dr. turner, research has not yet been done on younger people. for a complete list of the types of medications that can pose a dementia risk and alternatives check out our wusa9 app. >>> this flu season has been one of the worst ever for the elderly. the number of people 65 or older hospitalized by the flu is the highest since the government began tracking nine years ago. the good news is the flu appears to have peaked the beginning of january and has become less widespread and less intense the last couple weeks. >>> this sunday marks the final deadline for enrollment to get health insurance under the affordable care act. the