The aim of our present study was to detect whether a generalized disturbance of intracortical inhibitory mechanisms as assessed by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be observed in a movement disorder with localized clinical expression, that is, in focal cervical dystonia. We measured motor threshold intensity, central motor conduction time and the duration of postexcitatory inhibition evoked by single and paired stimuli TMS from a small hand muscle in 20 patients with idiopathic cervical dystonia, and 21 healthy volunteers. A significant difference could not be found in any of the neurophysiological parameters between patients and controls. These findings are unlike the observations made in Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease, where significant changes of postexcitatory inhibition after TMS can be observed. This suggests a lack of widespread change in activity of underlying cortical inhibitory mechanisms, as seen in other diseases of the extrapyramidal system with more generalized clinical involvement.