Objective To investigate the correlation between aberrant inflammatory biomarkers and the clinical manifestations and cognitive processing capabilities in individuals with schizophrenia. Methods A crosssectional study was conducted， including 50 hospitalized schizophrenia patients（ schizophrenia group） in Hefei Fourth People's Hospital and 43 healthy controls recruited from the community between October 2021 and June 2024. Serum levels of inflammatory cytokines-including interleukin-2 receptor α（ IL-2Rα）， monokine induced by interferon-γ（ MIG）， macrophage inflammatory protein-1β（ MIP-1β）， interferon-α2（ IFN-α2）， stromal cell-derived factor-1α（ SDF-1α）， interleukin-1 receptor antagonist（ IL-1ra）， IL-16， IL-12p40， leukemia inhibitory factor（ LIF）， tumor necrosis factor-β（ TNF-β）， granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor （GM-CSF）， interferon-γ-induced protein 10（ IP-10）， and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1（ MCP-1）-were measured using Meso Scale Discovery（ MSD） electrochemiluminescence. Clinical symptoms were assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale（ PANSS）， and information processing ability was evaluated using the Stroop Color-Word Test（ SCWT）. Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between inflammatory factors， clinical symptoms， and information processing ability. Multiple linear regression analysis and generalized additive model（ GAM） were used to analyze the impact of inflammatory cytokine levels on clinical symptoms and information processing abilities in patients with schizophrenia. Results The schizophrenia group exhibited significantly higher levels of IL-2Rα， MIG， IL-1ra， IL-12p40， and MCP-1 compared to controls（ P ＜ 0.05）. SWCT evaluation results showed that there were statistically significant differences in point reaction time， number of point errors， word reaction time， word color reaction time and number of word color errors in two groups（ t/Z=3.819，-2.554，-6.345，-3.965，-4.000，-4.102，-2.422，-4.600，-3.091， -2.572； all P＜0.05）. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that IL-1ra（ β'=0.605， t=5.259， P＜0.001） was the influencing factor of the number of word color errors， and MCP-1 （β'=0.286， t=2.068， P=0.044） was the influencing factor of depression and anxiety. GAM analysis showed that the model interpretation rate of the number of word color errors was 70.30%. Both IL-1ra and MCP-1 had significant effects on the number of word color errors（ all P＜ 0.01）； The fitting curve showed that the influence of IL-1ra on the number of word color errors and MCP-1 on depression and anxiety factors showed a fluctuating upward trend， while the influence of IL-1ra on depression and anxiety factors and MCP-1 on the number of word color errors tended to be stable or slightly decreased with the increase of inflammatory factors. Conclusions Abnormal levels of IL-1ra and MCP-1 are nonlinear influencing factors of clinical symptoms and information processing ability in patients with schizophrenia.