can the effect come before the cause?

A former undergraduate professor of mine who happens to have a side interest in physics once referred to a study that he had read of which concerned particle acceleration or something along those lines.

According to the study, the physicists (taking notes using a human temporal scale) recorded that the particles apparently reacted before the presumed physical causal factor of that reaction was introduced during the procedure. In other words the physical effect was observed before its assumed causal determinant was presented or included; it happened sooner than it should have on a human scale of time perception. Now if we boldly translate findings from the world of experimental physics to general human logic, is it not possible that an effect can precede or occur prior to the action of a causal force? Is it necessarily true that the chicken came before the egg? Maybe there have been times when you've witnessed a human or physical event and you have gotten the odd feeling that the results happened so quickly that you couldn't even tell what if anything lead up to it. I would like to hear your insights on this.