Long-term sport participation is associated with a selective auditory-musical performance profile

Long-term sport participation has been associated with selective differences in temporal and perceptual-cognitive processing, but it remains unclear whether such differences extend to auditory-musical perception. We examined overall and component-level performance on the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA) in 83 participants: 31 sport-trained participants and 52 psychology-student controls. Between-group differences were tested using ordinary least-squares regression with HC3 robust standard errors, adjusting for age and years of formal musical education; Holm correction was applied across the six MBEA subtests. Sport-trained participants obtained higher Total MBEA scores than controls (B = 15.34, p = 0.002). At the component level, they scored higher on the a priori temporal outcomes Rhythm (B = 2.87, Holm-adjusted p = 0.030) and Meter (B = 3.72, Holm-adjusted p = 0.012). An exploratory difference was also observed for Memory (B = 4.20, Holm-adjusted p = 0.002), whereas Contour did not remain significant after correction and no significant differences were found for Scale or Interval. Supplementary d' models and their leave-one-out sensitivity analyses converged on the same pattern for Rhythm, Meter, and Memory. Within the sport-trained group, years of sport participation were not positively associated with Total MBEA performance after adjustment for age (B = -0.78, p = 0.108). These findings suggest that long-term sport participation is associated with a selective rather than generalized profile of auditory-musical differences, with the clearest group differences in temporal processing and an exploratory difference in recognition memory. The cross-sectional design does not permit causal attribution to sport training, and the observed profile may reflect training-related adaptations, pre-existing individual differences, or both.