Epistemic Trust - From Neurobiology to Psychotherapy and Social Connectedness

Epistemic trust—the capacity to treat social communication as trustworthy, personally relevant, and generalizable—has emerged as a key transdiagnostic construct linking attachment, social learning, and mental health. Its disruption may represent a common pathway from early adversity to psychopathology, while its restoration appears to be a critical mechanism of change in psychotherapy.Recent evidence suggests that breakdowns in epistemic trust contribute to difficulties in emotion regulation, personality functioning, and trauma-related disorders such as PTSD and complex PTSD. These findings position epistemic trust as a bridge between developmental experiences, social cognition, and therapeutic processes. At the same time, neurobiological studies are beginning to map how trust, vigilance, and social learning are encoded in brain systems supporting attachment, emotion regulation, and prediction error.Epistemic trust also aligns with contemporary models of biological adaptation, as shown in psychoneuroendocrinology and psychoneuroimmunology. Adjustments in stress-response systems, threat sensitivity, and inflammatory regulation appear to influence how individuals open or close themselves to social learning. This integrative view highlights epistemic trust as part of coordinated biopsychosocial mechanisms rather than an isolated cognitive or relational process.This Research Topic aims to integrate perspectives from psychotherapy, psychiatry, social neuroscience, and developmental psychology to explore epistemic trust as a unifying mechanism across mental disorders and treatment modalities. Understanding how epistemic trust is lost and regained may illuminate the social foundations of resilience and offer new pathways for healing and reconnection.This Research Topic invites interdisciplinary contributions addressing the role of epistemic trust in mental health, psychopathology, neuroscience and psychotherapy. We welcome submissions from clinical psychology, psychiatry, developmental and social neuroscience, and psychotherapy research exploring epistemic trust as a mechanism linking early attachment, trauma, and social learning to resilience and therapeutic change. The Topic aims to integrate conceptual, empirical, and neurobiological perspectives to advance understanding of how epistemic trust is disrupted and restored across the lifespan and within diverse clinical contexts.To gather further insights in the multidimensional nature and boundaries of epistemic trust, we welcome articles addressing (but not limited to) the following themes:- Neural and physiological underpinnings of epistemic trust- Epistemic trust in child and adult development- The impact of attachment and relational experiences- Clinical interventions for fostering epistemic trust in psychotherapy- Epistemic trust and its relevance to social connectedness and community wellbeing- Disruptions of epistemic trust in psychopathology- Integration of epistemic trust into theoretical and therapeutic models Topic editors: Pricilla Braga Laskoski, Simone Hauck, Chloe Campbell, Guilherme Fiorini Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76858/epistemic-trust---from-neurobiology-to-psychotherapy-and-social-connectedness