Phantom smartphone vibrations

Surely many of us have experienced it. Infrequently, once or twice a month. Maybe someone more often. You are going somewhere or going, and suddenly you feel the familiar vibration in your pocket. Habitual movement for your smartphone, but ... it is not there. And you suddenly remember that you put it in a bag, or in a backpack, or did not take it at all.

You are not alone. In recent years, a number of studies have been carried out on the spread of phantom smartphone vibrations. For example, in one study it turned out that 68% of the medical staff at the Massachusetts Hospital experienced this phenomenon. According to the results of another study, 89% of students from a university in the Midwest came across phantom smartphone vibrations. Another study revealed the presence of this phenomenon among more than 90% of Taiwanese intern practitioners during the internship. What is the nature of phantom smartphone vibrations, and should we worry about this?

Psychology

This is a rather unusual and strange phenomenon in terms of psychology and physiology. If a person experiences such sensations, then this indicates his excessive psychological connection with his smartphone, according to David Laramie, a clinical psychologist. In 2007, Larami published his doctoral dissertation on the relationship between people and their mobile phones. This was the first serious study of the prevalence of phantom smartphone vibrations and phantom calls. It turned out that two thirds of the people participating in the study encountered this or that phenomenon.
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In 2012, the Macquarie Dictionary, the authoritative publication on Australian English, chose “phantom smartphone vibrations” by the Word of the Year .

Of course, the feeling of phantom vibrations or calls is not among the most unpleasant or annoying phenomena. The overwhelming majority of the interviewed people either do not characterize it at all as “disturbing” or “hardly disturbing”. But in itself it is a rather curious phenomenon. After all, you must admit that hallucinations are not characteristic of healthy people, and here we are talking about a mass phenomenon of a completely specific type of hallucination. What could be causing this?

True, the term "hallucination" may not be entirely true in this case. As Larami argues, this is an erroneous, false sense of the activity of a real object, but we have not invented the object itself, and the falsely-felt activity of it. As another definition, he suggests the term pareidolia . This is akin to the same thing when you see a ghostly face in the clouds, or an image of the Virgin Mary on fried toast .

The paradolic illusions are based on the excessive “diligence” of our brain in using the ability to detect patterns and structures in the outside world that are very useful in everyday life.

Inspired by the results of the study, Larami conducted a series of experiments on phantom calls. “At that time I had a ringtone, a characteristic feature of which was the presence of a number of sounds similar to those I often encountered in everyday life. And as soon as I changed the ringtone, I stopped hearing phantom calls. ”

With the help of his research, Laramie discovered two main factors by which one can predict the appearance of the sensation of phantom vibrations and calls. This is age (young people more often experience these feelings) and how much people rely on their smartphones, trying to balance their emotional state . For example, checking the smartphone when they want to calm down or cheer up. Laramie suggested that this is the main source of these paradollic illusions — vibrations and calls. Most often this is manifested in 20- and 30-year-olds who grew up “with smartphones in their hands,” unlike older people and technophobes.

Physiology

When an illusion of phantom vibrations occurs, not only psychological, but also physiological mechanisms are involved. Our skin contains two types of receptors that allow you to feel the vibration. These are the tactile calves of Meisner, "specializing" in slow vibrations, and Pacini corpuscles, which are responsible for determining high-frequency vibrations. Most smartphones vibrate at a frequency of 130-180 Hz, which falls on the range between the sensitivity peaks of these two types of receptors. This is probably why smartphones use both types of vibrators with their vibracalls, but still more than a Pacini calf.
Neurobiologist Sliman Bensmaya (Sliman Bensmaia) from the University of Chicago also believes that phantom vibrations are the result of the desire of our brain to detect familiar patterns and patterns. As an analogy, he gives an example, when we almost see the outlines of furniture in our home almost in complete darkness. Or the ability to see the Dalmatians in this black and white picture .

According to Bensmayya, when clothes rub against our skin, this can cause a similar irritation of vibroreceptors, as when vibrating the phone. This becomes a trigger for the brain, which actively “completes” the picture of what is happening and “recognizes” the vibration of the gadget. It is not known which section of the brain is responsible for this illusion, but it is possible that the primary somatosensory cortex and other high-level layers processing tactile sensations are involved.

If this explanation is correct, then we should feel phantom vibrations only in the areas of the body where we usually carry the phone. Also, the illusion of vibration should not occur if a person is naked. Larami said that two of the respondents often feel phantom vibrations when they wear corduroy pants, which fits well with the theory of the addition of tactile sensations to the brain, especially if the irregularities of the fabric slide over the skin at a frequency similar to a vibrating alert. If the velveteen has 5.51 grooves per centimeter, if the fabric rubs against the skin at a speed of 25 cm / s, for example, if you run or walk fast, then friction with a frequency of about 140 Hz is obtained.



In the event that you treat those 5-10% of people who are irritated by phantom vibrations, then there is a way to easily reduce or completely get rid of them. Turn off the vibrating alert or put the phone in another place, and your brain will quickly stop waiting for the vibration in the “old” place. And in any case, do not wear corduroy pants.