A few of my friends have Asperger's Syndrome, and a number of other friends exhibit the symptoms but have not been formally diagnosed. Many of those people are also highly intelligent, and because of the high intelligence and odd social behavior were stereotyped in school as being "odd geniuses".

I've wondered if I had some level of AS as well, because I exhibited some of the same behavior when I was younger (extreme fascination with a single topic, intense focus on one thing, a "systematic" thought process). I feel like I can easily understand how people with Asperger's talk, reason, and categorize. But, I can also empathize easily with people, which is not something people with Asperger's can typically do. Later, I was tested and found to have a high IQ, which (to me) explained a lot of my own quirks.

In my anecdotal experience, there seems to be a lot of correlation between people with Asperger's and people with high IQ. I'm curious if this is just correlation, or if there is some causation here. Are some traits of Asperger's actually traits of high intelligence, or perhaps the other way around?

A few of my friends have Asperger's Syndrome, and some fit the pattern but have not been formally diagnosed. Many of these friends are also highly intelligent, and because of the high intelligence and odd social behavior were stereotyped in school as being "odd geniuses".

In my anecdotal experience, there seems to be a lot of correlation between people with Asperger's and people with high IQ. I'm curious if this is just correlation, or if there is some causation here. 

Are some traits of Asperger's actually traits of high intelligence, or perhaps the other way around?