Adults with long-term sports training outperformed peers on rhythm and metre tests, but researchers caution that the cross-sectional study cannot show whether training caused the difference.
Long-term sport participation may be linked to a sharper ear for some
elements of music, according to a 2026 study in Frontiers in Psychology that
tested whether athletic training is associated with differences in auditory and
musical perception.
The research compared 31 sport-trained adults with 52 psychology students using
the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, a standard test that separates
music perception into pitch-based, rhythm-based and memory-related tasks. After
accounting for age and formal musical education, the sport-trained group scored
higher overall. The clearest advantages appeared in rhythm and metre, the two
subtests that probe temporal processing, while an exploratory improvement also
showed up in musical memory. A difference in melodic contour was seen at first
but did not remain statistically robust after correction for multiple
comparisons.
The findings suggest a selective rather than broad effect. According to the
study, the athletes did not show reliable gains in scale or interval tasks, both
of which are tied more closely to fine pitch judgement. That pattern matters
because it points away from a general musical advantage and towards a more
specific link with temporal organisation, the kind of processing used in
tracking timing, sequencing and prediction.
The authors say this fits with earlier sport science research showing that elite
performers often excel at anticipating rapid changes in play and adjusting their
actions under time pressure. The paper also places the results alongside work on
rhythm perception in the brain, where auditory and motor systems appear to work
closely together. Still, the study stops short of claiming that sport training
caused the musical differences. Because it was cross-sectional, the data cannot
separate training effects from pre-existing individual traits that may make some
people more likely to succeed in both sport and timing-heavy tasks.
The study also found no sign that more years of sport participation meant better
overall music scores. That weakens any simple dose-response explanation and
suggests that the relationship, if real, may depend on the type of sport, the
nature of training or other developmental factors. The authors say larger,
longer-term studies will be needed to find out whether the same temporal skills
that help athletes anticipate movement also shape how they process rhythm and
other structured sounds.
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