The trichromatic and opponent-process theories of color vision are not mutually exclusive; instead, they describe color processing at different stages within the nervous system. The trichromatic theory accurately explains visual processing at the retinal level, where three types of cone cells respond to different wavelengths of light corresponding to red, green, and blue. Once the visual signal is transmitted beyond the retina towards the brain, the neural cells process this information in a manner consistent with the opponent-process theory.