duality in autistic savants

The proposition of the 'Cartesian Split' brought me to a basic concept in our society that I think brings a different perspective to how we normally think of the separation of body and mind; autism and/or savant syndrome. I became most aware of this syndrome after watching "Rain Man" long ago, based off of Bill Sackter who was a mentally handicapped man with an uncanny level of intelligence. Intelligence, in itself, is an incredibly vague concept that can range from basic survival abilities to rocket-science, but in the case of many savant/autism cases, to me, intelligence takes on a whole new meaning. As I'm sure were all aware of, the most glorified portrayals of patients with autism or savant syndrome show people with severe restraints in regards to their social capabilities, while being able to excel in other (often more technical) areas of their lives.

An interesting and easily readable article on the subject can be found here--http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1805

In many ways I think incorporating this 'phenomenon' into our discussions of duality seemed entirely relevant, because in the cases of many of these patients, it's as if they've had all this time, this extensive mental training to perfect these certain aspects of their lives, while remaining encapsulated in their physical bodies. I've read stories where people contribute this sort of thing to the notion of an 'old soul'--meaning literally the soul of someone from a previous lifetime has inherited the body of a person currently alive, which is obviously a faulty argument (especially with support from ridiculous sites like this---http://searchwarp.com/swa74654.htm) but I can't throw the entire thing out the window. Is it possible that if the soul, or conscious being within each of us, is this separate thing entirely, that it would be able to transcend into the bodies or 'vessels' of other people? Which (in some other argument) might also partially explain the 'second coming' of holy entities (http://www.michaelteachings.com/soul_ages.html#trans).

In respect to the original mention of savants, I can't get over the uncanny ability to reproduce sounds (even full orchestras) in their entirety, by only being introduced to them just prior to performing them. The intricacies of these musical pieces go beyond recalling a specific tunes, and evolve into conciously re-performing the entire musical scores in ways that no one has done before. To me, this sort of thing suggests a kinetic relationship with association of sounds, an undeniable language that only a chose few are able to hear, let alone become fluent in. Is it possible that these are the 'transcendent souls' we hear about? Or is this simply the extent of our amazing brains?

Here are some interesting examples---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKk96kOAnLg (this one is especially interesting because it shows acquired autism, generally from physical trauma)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_GUPcg25QI <---this guy is awesome