Surgical devices and methods are configured to access areas of the brain while minimizing brain damage. A brain probe device for removing a lesion from a brain includes a cannula fixable to the skull to align the cannula with the lesion, a tubular stem within the cannula configured to be advanced to the lesion, and a rotatable cutting tube within the tubular stem. Expandable wire loops configured to cut tissue are attached to the distal end of the tubular stem. A loop expander and rotation motor mechanism is operably linked to the wire loops and configured to cause rotation and variable outward expansion of the wire loops. Tissue cut by the wire loops is removed through slots and a central lumen of the tubular stem. The cutting tube is rotatable to sever tissue drawn into the slots into smaller fragments that are removed through the central lumen via aspiration.