Nerves and Speed/force

This is Steven Petrick Posting.

One of the odd things about human bodies is that they are capable of faster action uncontrolled than they are in conscious control.

For much of the preceding year I had some kind of malfunction affecting my jaw. At various times this would cause my jaw to involuntarily slam shut with considerable force (and a great deal of pain if my tongue happened to be in the way). I cannot consciously duplicate this (and, no, I have never experimented with putting my tongue voluntarily in the path of harm). I can get my jaw to bite down with all the force I can muster, but I cannot achieve the combination of speed and force the malfunction created. The force, yes, as a constant pressure, but I cannot get my mouth to close that fast consciously.

Whatever was causing the malfunction has since cleared up, apparently some kind of infection was affecting some nerve connected to my jaw, and apparently it was also linked to something else, as the most common times for it to trigger were either while I was asleep (accounting for most of the times I bit my tongue), or while I was lying supine attempting to go to sleep. It very rarely happened when I was wide awake and either standing/walking or sitting.

At one time or another in my life I have had other "misfires" (for want of a better term) causing a limb to move suddenly (usually from a position of rest). I suspect that tap dancers are perhaps better able to access the speed inherent in the system that is not available to us normally (at least I cannot account for the speed at which they "tap"). I have to wonder if this speed and strength is just something built into all of our bodies that mostly lies dormant until the "fight/flight" reflex kicks in, but perhaps once in a while gets triggered by a "short" in the body's electrical system.