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Jumping Frenchman of Maine Disorder is a condition of abnormal, exaggerated startle reflex in response to a sudden sensory input. The example provided by George Miller Beard, the first physician to study and characterize the disorder, as that if one was “abruptly asked to strike another, he would do so without hesitation, even if it was his mother and he had an ax in his hand.” (1) It is an uncommon condition, with most observed cases occurring in the Moosehead Lake region of Maine and the Beauce region of Quebec (where many of the lumberjacks came from). There has been some evidence of family history, but most patients did not become symptomatic until beginning work as a lumberjack, suggesting that it is a psychologic, rather than neurologic, disorder.

While this condition is rare, it’s impact became far-reaching. Beard’s initial studies on the Jumping Frenchmen sparked an investigation by Georges Giles de la Tourette to study what is today known as Tourette’s syndrome.

(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim/244100