The cellular distribution of parvalbumin-like immunoreactivity (PA-LI) in the human brain was investigated by peroxidase-antiperoxidase methods using antiserum to rat skeletal muscle parvalbumin. PA-LI was present in non-pyramidal neurons of the cerebral cortices, stellate cells, basket cells and Purkinje cells in cerebellar cortices, and neurons of some nuclei in human brain stem; the distribution of PA-LI in human brain was very similar to that in rat brain. These results indicate that PA-LI is widely distributed in a specific subpopulation of neurons of the human brain.