In reading, a string of alphabets is successively bound into words, phrases, and sentences. Here we test whether transient disinhibition of posterior language areas by the Broca’s area underpins symbolic binding by combining physiology and neuroimaging approaches in healthy and aphasic individuals. We further test the disinhibitory hypothesis in macaques by a multimodal approach, which would clarify interspecies difference and homology of dynamic brain circuit operations for symbolic binding in the primate lineage.