What’s happening when you think there’s a bug crawling on your leg, but nothing’s there?
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Your nerves often send random false signals but the brain decides to ignore some of them when they’re not important.
however, some signals that are more important than others are not ignored.
feeling a bug crawling on your leg is not something to be ignored even if it’s a false sensation, because bugs can be poisonous or carry disease, so the brain would rather be safe than sorry.
another example is the false sensation of something vibrating on your skin: historically the brain would ignore such feelings when there was no reason for them to exist. However, since the invention of the mobile phone, vibrations on your legs are now an important signal because a vibration in your pocket means you’re receiving a call.
so nowadays the brain no longer ignores such sensations which leads to phantom vibrations in your legs, particularly on the side of the body where you normally keep you phone.
https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20160111/phones-phantom-vibration
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