Is leg jiggling a focus aid? This is slightly left-field, but I am interested in the Cognitive Science implications of this question: Many people, myself included, are "leg jigglers", meaning we often sit jiggling or bouncing a leg - usually to the irritation of those around us.

The evidence that I have seen is that:


it is not related to Parkinson's
it is semi-involuntary - I can stop, but I do not consciously do it, and the speed of the jiggle is not something I am controlling
it might be correlated to performance in tests
and it is related to ADHD.


In my experience, it does seem to help my concentration. but I don't know if this is biological or cognitive - that is, a physical help, or an outlet of my consciousness while I am focusing on something. I would like to know if anyone has any scientifically valid evidence for relating cognitive focus to leg jiggling?
I've also observed this behaviour in friends, and was curious to see what research has been done on the topic. Here's what I found (summary at the end). 

Sechrest and Flores (1971) study of leg-jiggling

Sechrest and Flores (1971) performed an observational study of the prevalence of leg-jiggling 


  leg jiggling was defined as a vertical, rhythmic movement of one or
  both legs while the subject was in a seated position


Their findings, albeit based on varying-quality data were that:


leg jiggling is more common in the Philippines than in the United States
individual differences exist in prevalence of leg jiggling 
people may jiggle their legs more when alone than in company
leg jiggling appears to be more prevalent in males than in females 
leg jiggling is facilitated by type of sitting position. Specifically, legs uncrossed makes leg jiggling a lot easier and more likely.


They tentatively concluded that leg jiggling is a symptom of tension and classified it as a nervous mannerism. They also suggested, given cultural differences, that it may be acquired through imitation of others.

Leg jiggling as communication

Smith and Naryan (2008), in their conference abstract, discuss features of leg jiggling and conclude that:


  while so far we can only speculate about the causal and
  functional properties of jiggles, they are clearly substantially
  rule-governed, sensitive to both formal and semantic aspects of
  ongoing discourse, widespread - both patterns were observed in all
  discourse contexts, and both languages - and deserving of further 
  attention.


Restless leg syndrome

There is a disorder called restless leg syndrome. From the description the leg movement is voluntary but the desire to move the leg sounds much stronger than what we are talking about with normal leg jiggling.

Fidgeting

Mehrabian and Friedman (1986) did a general study of fidgeting where leg jiggling was classified with a wide range of other fidgeting behaviours. 
Fidgeting was defined as:


  engaging in manipulations of one's own body parts or other objects, such actions being 
  peripheral or nonessential to central ongoing events or tasks


They developed a self-reported fidgeting scale and proceeded to correlate the scale with a range of other measures. Given the composite nature of the scale, it is difficult to say what correlates leg jiggling specifically has with other measures. And even if such correlations were known, it would only say something about what types of people jiggle their legs rather than the effect leg jiggling has for those that do jiggle.

Student concentration

Appleton (1969) in a study of student concentration suggests


  Individual styles and habits reveal personal means of coping with the
  profound isolation of the concentrating state. Leg jiggling, for
  example, may be an outlet for sexual tension or a method of exercise
  and movement. Many students find the physical inactivity demanded by
  heavy work loads to be extremely difficult to bear.


Summary of links between leg jiggling and focus

So, in relation to your specific question on leg jiggling facilitating focus, the research that I've found is fairly limited. Researchers have noticed that leg jiggling is used by students when studying in order to deal with the otherwise, long periods of no movement. This is consistent with my own thoughts that it might be related to a general desire to increase circulation. Several researchers have also posited that leg jiggling may be  a way of dealing with stress, which arguably might assist with concentration. But ultimately, it looks like more research is needed on this topic, particularly experimental evidence on the effects of leg jiggling.

References


Appleton, W. S. (1969). The struggle to concentrate. Amer. J. Psychiat, 126, 256. FREE PDF
Mehrabian, A. and Friedman, S. (1986). An analysis of fidgeting and
associated individual differences. Journal of Personality,
54(2):406-429.
Sechrest, L. and Flores, L. (1971). The occurrence of a nervous
mannerism in two cultures. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Asian Studies, 1, 55-63. FREE PDF
Smith, N. J. &amp; Narayan, S. (2008). Fidgeting is Not Random: Rhythmic Leg Motion, Speech, and Gesture.9th Conference on Conceptual Structure, Discourse, &amp; Language (CSDL9) LINK