She died of sepsis from a ruptured intestine. ( 1 CNN)Actress Patty Duke died Tuesday as a result of sepsis from a ruptured intestine, according to Mitchell K. Stubbs & Associates, the agency that represented her. She was 69.
How Your Brain Works. The basic lower brain consists of the spinal cord, brain stem and diencephalon (the cerebellum and cortex are also present, but will be discussed in later sections). In turn, the brain stem comprises the medulla, pons, midbrain, hypothalamus and thalamus [source: Health Pages].
The brain is made up of over 100 billion nerve cells with each brain cell connected to around 10,000 other cells, which equals around 1000 trillion connections in your brain. Your brain is actually very soft, jelly-like, and not grey but a deep red in color. The brain controls both involuntary, or lower, actions, such as heart rate, respiration, and digestion. Complex, or higher, mental activity, such as thought, reason, and abstraction, is consciously controlled.