Presentation time has been poorly controlled in studies on the visual lobe, due to the common opinion that a target exerts bottom-up control over the visual system with the effect that data limits are rapidly reached. The visual lobes of 4 subjects were determined with presentation times ranging between 150 and 450 msec and with a self-paced presentation time. The results showed a significant increase in lobe size as presentation time increased. The lobe size at 450 msec was about equally large as at the self-paced condition, suggesting that a data limit may be reached at that value. This result refutes a simple bottom-up sensory explanation of the lobe. Instead, it suggests a contribution of central processing, either bottom-up or top-down, which extends over time. The implications of this result for the role of the lobe while fixating during free search remain to be determined.