<p>This paper focuses on an incommensurate fractional-order bidirectional associative memory neural network (BAMNN) with leakage and axonal delays, comprising eight neurons. Conditions on the occurrence of Hopf bifurcation have been proposed for both systems (those with and without leakage delay), taking time delay as the bifurcation parameter. The impact of time delay on both systems is illustrated numerically. We have shown that time delays tend to destabilize the system. Furthermore, we have observed that the Hopf bifurcation occurs earlier in the BAMNN with leakage delay than in the BAMNN without leakage delay. Finally, we have shown that for both systems, the fractional order is inversely related to the threshold time delay for Hopf bifurcation events.</p>