Cell phone users across the country who sense that their phones are ringing but pick them up to find no evidence of an incoming call can now validate these "phantom" sensations with a recent study.

The study conducted by David Laramie, a doctoral student at the California School of Professional Psychology, found that people who used cell phones frequently were more likely to report phantom rings or vibrations. Through an online survey of 320 participants, he found that almost two-thirds reported feeling these sensations.

"I decided to research phantom ringing because I had experienced it, as had friends and classmates," Laramie wrote in an e-mail. "I could not find any discussion or research of the phenomenon ..."

Laramie presented his dissertation, "Emotional and Behavioral Aspects of Mobile Phone Use," at the American Psychological Association convention in August.

"I did not discover a new disorder ... instead, I investigated an interesting phenomenon and found it to be a quirky part of everyday life," Laramie wrote.

Lauren Hawn (senior-animal sciences) said she prefers to keep her mobile phone with her at all times.

"I usually keep it in my back pocket, and sometimes I think it's vibrating when it's not," she said. "When I do have it with me I seem to look at it a lot and check the time even when I don't need to."

A relationship between these phantom rings and phantom limb pain -- nerve sensations felt by amputees in the place of the missing limb -- has also been found by researchers.

"There is an area of the brain that transmits sensations of your hand, but after it's lost, these short-circuit and cause the brain to reorganize the signals," said David Gill, a psychoneurologist at the Hershey Medical Center.

This reorganization -- neuroplasticity -- is the brain's response to change, which allows the rerouting of circuits, he said.

A similar attachment to mobile phones could potentially cause the same kind of reorganization in the brain, transmitting these false sensations that a phone is ringing, Gill said.

"Sounds selected for a ringtone are made to get our attention," Gill said. "You want to [be] aware ... so it is more likely that we are all just more constantly vigilant for sound."

Megan Carl, a Penn State alumna working for a marketing firm, said she is on her phone often.

"Sometimes I'll even pick it up before it starts ringing, it's become an extension of my hand," she said.

Mark Ballora, an associate professor of music technology, said cell phones have a broad range of frequencies and repetitive rhythm, which could cause people to believe their phones are ringing when it's a really just a similar sound.

Lauran Cario (sophomore-division of undergraduate studies) said she uses her phone a couple times a day, but that "phantom ringing" affects her all the time.

"I dropped my phone, so now it doesn't vibrate," she said, "but I constantly think it's ringing now."