Ever experienced trying to answer your vibrating cellphone only to find out that it wasn't vibrating at all? Apparently there's a name for this condition. Some call it "vibranxiety", others prefer to call it by the more important sounding term, "phantom vibration syndrome".

Others have wondered, and even worried, if there are any physical reasons for this phenomenon. They think that perhaps it may be caused by muscle memory or even nerve damage. Thankfully, experts say that this is simply a demonstration of how easily our brains form habits.

Alejandro Lleras, a sensation and perception professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says that perceiving rings and vibrations is part of our perceptual learning process. He expounds:

When we learn to respond to a cellphone, we're setting perceptual filters so that we can pick out that (ring or vibration), even under noisy conditions... As the filter is created, it is imperfect, and false alarms will occur. Random noise is interpreted as a real signal, when in fact, it isn't.

Neurological connections that have been used or formed by the sensation of vibrating are easily activated... They're over-solidified, and similar sensations are incorporated into that template. They become a habit of the brain.