The interaction of the hippocampus and amygdala, crucial for the formation of emotional memories, may play a central role in the pathophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, with amygdala hyperactivity regarded as a hallmark of PTSD, it is still not clear whether amygdala hyperresponsiveness before a traumatic event is a predisposing factor for the development of PTSD or is an acquired condition upon trauma. To address this question, in the current study, we explore the effect of heightened amygdala activity on anxiety and fear memory in the formation of hippocampal fear memory engrams. Using chemogenetics, we demonstrate increased anxiety-like behavior and hyperactivity in the elevated plus maze in female but not in male mice. By contrast, amygdala hyperactivity led to the loss of specificity of background context fear memory in both sexes, together with an increase in cFos expression in the dorsal hippocampus. However, aberrant reactivation engram patterns in the presence of ambiguous contextual threats were observed only in male mice. Collectively, this data supports the notion that a hyperactive amygdala might underlie the fear-induced metaplasticity in the hippocampal circuits relevant to pattern separation and completion functions