Binge eating is a disruptive and treatment-resistant behavior that complicates the management of obesity and comorbid psychiatric disorders. The distributed network that governs feeding behavior, particularly of palatable food, has a nexus point within the ventral striatum (VS). This important structure integrates information from energy homeostasis circuits of the hypothalamus and brain stem, cognitive control regions of the prefrontal cortex and central nodes of learning and memory. The VS is thus an ideal target for neuromodulation-based interventions (e.g., deep brain stimulation) for the treatment of appetitive disorders. Here, we extracted information about feeding behavior from VS oscillations in a rat model of binge eating -a critical step in the development of responsive neuromodulation systems for appetitive disorders. Local field potentials (LFPs) were recorded from bilateral nucleus accumbens (NAc) core and shell (regions within the VS) during binge sessions across varying conditions. LFP features (n=58) were used as predictors in statistical (logistic regression) and machine learning (lasso) models to predict the type and quantity of food consumed, classify rat behavior (feeding or not feeding) in real time, and predict the onset of future feeding bouts. The complexity of real-time models was then manipulated to determine the impact on model stability and performance.Performance of models was quantified (effect size, d) by comparison to the performance of models built from permuted data. Models were able to predict the amount of food eaten at baseline (mean absolute error, MAE = 2.6 ± 0.08 gm; d = 0.43), the increase in binge size following food deprivation (MAE = 0.8% ± 0.01%; d = 1.1) and the type of food eaten (accuracy = 59 ± 1%; d = 0.55). Other models were able to predict whether initiation of feeding was imminent (area under the curve, AUC = 0.81 ± 0.03; d = 2.68) up to 42.5 seconds before feeding began and classify current behavior as feeding or not-feeding (AUC = 0.87 ± 0.01; d = 3.27). For real-time models, an optimal balance between model complexity and performance was achieved using 3 LFP features with the largest contributions from features in the alpha and peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/241919 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Jan. 2, 2018; high gamma frequencies. Similar models could be incorporated into algorithms used to improve treatment outcomes in adaptive neuromodulation systems for disorders of appetitive behavior.