Visuospatial ability (VSA) is the ability to mentally represent, analyze and manipulate objects. In medicine, this is equivalent to being able to represent an organ, or a set of interlocking anatomical structures, without a change in viewpoint altering their relationships. Numerous socio-cultural factors influence an individual's theoretical visuo-spatial capacity over the course of his or her life (video games, team sports, manual arts, virtual reality) [[1], [2], [3], [4], [5]] and it has been shown that a subject's VSA increases with training and practice, in medicine [6,7] or dentistry [8]. As for endogenous factors and according to the literature, the most predominant factor is gender. Numerous studies have shown a significant difference in favor of men in performance on VSA tests [[9], [10], [11]]. Concerning the factor age, after the age of 18, there does not seem to be a significant difference between subjects [12].

Surgery, as a visual and technical discipline, requires extreme precision, fine coordination of movements and a thorough understanding and knowledge of anatomy. VSA, defined as the cognitive manipulation of spatial information, plays a crucial role in preoperative planning, anatomical navigation during surgery, and rapid decision-making in the event of unexpected complications. With regard to learning anatomy during medical studies, studies have shown that a better theoretical VSA leads to a finer understanding of anatomy [13,14] and better complex 3D shape recognition [15]. On the other hand, students had a better understanding and retained more information if anatomy was learned on 3D models rather than 2D anatomical plates [[16], [17], [18]].

Previous studies have already demonstrated a correlation between VSA and surgical skill; VSA is associated with skills in laparoscopic and minimally invasive surgery [[19], [20], [21]] and differences in mental rotation levels between individuals are smoothed out during surgery training [22], but none have investigated the link between VSA and speed of execution of a complex surgical task requiring mental rotation.

The aim of this study was to assess whether theoretical VSA correlated with the speed of execution of a complex surgical task requiring mental rotation in future surgeons.