Many of us have reached in our pockets, feeling a vibration, wrongly believing our mobile phones have just rung.

许多人都曾有过这样的错觉：觉得手机在振动，于是去口袋拿手机，结果手机根本没响。

The phenomenon even has a name: "phantom vibration syndrome" - and found it is surprisingly common.

Now scientists believe that we are so alert for phone calls and messages we are misinterpreting slight muscle spasms as proof of a call.

Robert Rosenberger, an assistant professor at the Georgia Tech Institute of Technology has studied the delusional calls.

He said sufferers describe a vague tingling feeling which they think is their mobile phone indicating it has received a text message or call while on "silent".

But when the device is retrieved, there was no one on the other end.

Dr Rosenberger said "I find so many people say, 'This happens to me, but I thought I was the only one, I thought I was weird.'"

It seems that the syndrome particularly affects people at the beck and call of mobile phones or pagers.