(Phys.org)—The Jumping Frenchmen of Maine is a puzzling neurological syndrome named after a few peculiar 19th-century lumberjacks. Their defining symptom was an unnaturally exaggerated jumping reflex when startled. Georges Gilles de la Tourette included the disorder in his famous 1878 description of convulsive tic disorder,but to this day, its exact cause remains unknown. Among the many informative anecdotes associated with these specific French Canadians from Moosehead Lake, and was that they could be inexplicably made to strike a dear loved one if their agitator commanded it loudly enough.
Source: phys.org