The brain's ability to process sensory information with both efficiency and flexibility allows organisms to interact with their environment and quickly adapt to different circumstances. In mice for example, the sight of an imminent threat may trigger different behaviors such as freezing or fleeing, depending on the internal and external state of the animal. These innate defensive behaviors are driven by neural circuits through the superior colliculus. In this midbrain nucleus we study how sensory information is extracted and interpreted across multiple scales - from the processing within the dendrites of a specific neural type to large-scale neural networks across the brain to drive behavior.