‘Phantom’ Cell Phone Sensations 

Phantom arms, legs and now cell phone vibrations — you can feel them, you can sense them, but they aren’t really there.Quote:

“If you use your cell phone a lot, it becomes part of you,” says Dr. William Barr, the chief of neuropsychology at the New York University School of Medicine. “You become habituated to it. “It’s like wearing a tight sock all day,” he explains. “When you take it off, you still feel it there on your foot. If your cell phone is not there, you still feel like it is.”

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Like the phantom limb phenomenon, mysterious cell phone vibrations can also be explained by changing nerve connections in the brain. “Cell phones enter into the neuromatrix of the body — they become appendages,” says Barr. So when you leave your cell phone at home, the brain interprets it as it would a phantom limb — it’s not present, but you feel as though it is. “It’s an interesting technological statement about society that our machines are becoming part of us,” says Barr.Press the Button, Get the MessageKaas says another principle, known as operant conditioning, may also be at play in phantom phone vibrations. In studies of operant conditioning, researchers have found that rats that are rewarded after pressing a lever will learn to press the lever more frequently. The pressing becomes habitual. In the case of cell phones, people are rewarded when they pick up their calls and read their incoming text messages, which causes them to pick up their cell phones more and more frequently.

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“People are rewarded when they are able to detect low amplitude vibrations so they get better and better at responding,” says Kaas. “It is very rewarding to get the message, so people are able to train their system to detect that signal.” As people repeat this behavior over and over again, connections between nerves in their brain become stronger and new ones are formed, which helps to make the behavior automatic.

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<H4>Kicking the ‘CrackBerry’ Addiction

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And just as the brain changes to create phantom sensations, it can also change back to get rid of them. Over time, the phantom limb syndrome goes away as other parts of the brain take over the part that controls the limb. “Sometimes other parts of the brain will move into the real estate occupied by the amputated limb,” says Barr. “Over time, other parts of the brain start to encroach on the part of the brain that represents the phantom limb.” Similarly, experts say that those haunted with BlackBerry vibrations should simply stop using them. “The problem will stop if people stop carrying BlackBerrys,” says Kaas. “It’s not a permanent condition. If people stop carrying their BlackBerrys, the connections between neurons will degrade, and people will be able to retain their neurons to do other things.” However, while phantom sensations arise from similar brain functions, phantom limbs and phantom phone vibrations are in no way similar in how they affect the lives of those experiencing these sensations. Losing a limb and losing a cell phone are not at all comparable, and many experts emphasize that the pain experienced by some amputee victims can be seriously disabling.